Confusion Ensured
by Blueh
Summary: AU-ish. A car accident. At least, thats what Ace and Luffy thought it was. Then came the dreams of themselves as pirates. Then came the pirates themselves. Then came Thatch claiming that dimension-travel wasn't possible and Marco just being Marco. And then came the confusion.
1. The Crash

**Sooo, hello there! This was an idea that popped into my head and I couldn't get it out, so I wrote about it. I'm acually pretty exited to write about it too, since it's about Ace and Luffy. **

**I love the two of them together. **

**But don't worry! There isn't going to be anything romantic between the two of them :) Just brotherly.**

* * *

**Confusion ensured - Chapter One – The Crash**

"Ace~" The small voice of Luffy complained from the back of the car. He poked his head up to the front of the car, hoping to get a better view of the road they were currently climbing, but it was impossible to see because it was so dark outside.

Ace glared at his younger brother, trying the get the young kid to sit in his freaking seat, but Luffy refused to budge, only his raven hair swished from side to side. This road was relatively dangerous, especially at night—always twisting and turning, Ace had a hard time keeping up with it, not to mention that he couldn't see anything ten feet in front of him because of the way the trees seem to cover everything. He didn't need his smiley-tooth, raven-haired brother up in his face.

"Luffy, sit down!" He finally snapped, not taking his squinting eyes off the curving road. He took another sharp turn left then one right, his headlights flashed over something's eyes. Probably a rabbit. Why the hell were they going this route anyway? It was too eerie and quiet. Luffy and him both knew this was the fastest way to their small home up in the mountains, but they always purposely avoided it. This road was where the most car accidents happened, not to mention that one wrong move on Ace's part could sent them both flying off a mountain. Ace didn't even remember if anyone suggested this route, or if he just took a wrong turn and ecited that this was better than turning around. But that didn't matter now, what's done is done and Ace couldn't turn around on this small one-way road.

"Aw~" Luffy complained, but his head disappeared back behind the front driver's seat. Ace could hear his brothers mumbling, and cursing as he tried to untangle the seatbelt that he had somehow twisted himself in. Finally situated, Luffy said, "You're a party pooper."

"Sorry." Ace said, shrugging his shoulders. He honestly wasn't very sorry at all. "I just don't feel like dying today. How about you? Do you want to die today? I think it can wait till tomorrow."

"But I don't want to die at all!" Luffy complained, shaking his head side to side as fast as he could. "I prefer living! Dying is for old people. Are you an old person, Ace?"

Even though Ace knew Luffy couldn't see his facial expression, he still put on his 'wtf are you talking about?' mask that he wore for idiots. And yes, his brother was an idiot so he wore it a lot. "Do I look old to you?"

"Do you want an honest answer? ~" Luffy's tone of voice sounded close to singing the last part of his sentence. He didn't even wait for Ace to answer before he started giggling madly, probably rolling around in his small leather seat of the pickup truck. Ace sighed, completely use to his little brother's antics. Most car rides were worse than this, but thankfully Luffy didn't seem to have as much sugar this morning, though, where he kept getting sugar was another question all together.

"I'm going to kill you one of these days." Ace growled at him, his dark eyes narrowing. Many possibilities ran through his head on how to kill his brother, but he pushed them to the back of his head. _Focus on driving,_ he scolded himself in his head, _kill little bro later._

"When are we going to get there?" Luffy complained once again, apparently forgetting that he just called Ace an old man just a few seconds ago and popped his head back up in the divers seat. Ace loved his little brother dearly, but he was the most annoying person in the world when he wanted to be. Which was pretty much all the time.

"God dammit Luffy!" He forcibly pushed his brother back in his seat with one hand keeping the other tighly holding the steering wheel, but still, his eyes never left the road. Luffy muttered a few worlds under his breath as he fell to the car's small floor, possibly hitting his head on the seats behind him. "Let me drive! This road is dangerous! I don't want you getting hurt, so _sit down!" _And just like that his little brother was already back in his seat, looking out the window like nothing happened.

Ace sighed, and grumbled something under his breath. He added bipolar to the long list of traits that Luffy had, not that he would remember later today anyway. "You're going to be the death of me, Lu."

"Don't say that!" Luffy protested, he looked ready to just out of his seat _again, _so Ace gave him a warning growl. Luckily, Luffy took the hint and relaxed, slowly sinking into the leather. A small pout appeared on his face, making him look much younger and much more innocent that a 17 year old.

"I can't see your face, Luffy. So not matter how much you pout you're not getting anything." Ace reminded the simple-headed teen. Ace could honestly say he wasn't surprised when Luffy started to un-do his seatbelt for an unknown reason. Ace was beyond frustrated now; trying to keep this boy in his seat was like trying to heard cats. Very hyper, very small cats.

"Sit down!" Ace snapped before Luffy could get more out of his seat then he already was. "What's you're problem with the seat anyway? You're acting like it's going to eat you."

Luffy's pout deepened and he crossed his arms over his chest. "It might. The world is a confusing place. Besides, it's itchy~!"

_Oh, so that's what it's about. _Ace fought the urge to roll his eyes. Honestly, only Luffy could almost kill himself over something as simple as an itchy seat belt. "Luffy, I swear to god, if you don't stay in your freaking seat there is going to be no meat for a month. Just green food. Got it?"

Luffy wailed like he was just told that the world was going to end, but he sat back down in his seat, hopefully not to get up until they arrive home again. An awkward silence overtook the two brothers and Luffy just stared out the window. "It's really dark out," he finally commented. "Shouldn't we be home by now? I don't recognize any of this."

Ace sighed and rolled his eyes fondly. Luffy couldn't even keep quiet for more than a minute. "First off, your directional sense is about as good as a peanut's. Second, it's because it late outside, Luffy. It's like 11 o-clock."

"Oh," Luffy said, glancing up at Ace for a few moments before looking out the window. Once again silence covered the car, and Ace hummed in pleasure. With Luffy around, everything was loud. It's nice one in a while to be able to sit and enjoy each other's company.

"I just saw a rabbit," Luffy said suddenly, making Ace jump in his seat. The older boy felt the urge to slam his head on the steering wheel. What happened to his peace? Oh right. He was with_ Luffy_. What the hell was he thinking when he though it would stay quiet?

"That was rather blunt," Ace said with a frustrated groan. "Didn't you see that I was enjoying the silence?"

"No," came the reply. "You told me to stay in my seat and not move or else I wouldn't get meat, there was nothing about quiet time." At least he was following _one _order.

"And you're sitting still? Good job." Ace squinted out the front windshield, something seemed off. Even though no one else was driving the road, Ace felt his stomach drop. Everything was quiet, like they were waiting for something to happen. Something big. Whatever was about to happen, Ace _did not _want to be apart of. Someone may call it paranoid, but Ace called it instinct. And his instincts were always right. It helps when he grew up on the streets for most of his life.

Ace could tell Luffy could feel it too, because he felt the seat shift behind him, and even though Ace told him not to, Luffy popped his head in the front compartment of the car. He wore a heavy frown, something that was rare, especially for Luffy. His voice was no more than a whisper when he spoke, "Something's off. The air just changed and the world feels like it's holding its breath. Ace, what's wrong?"

"I don't know." Ace replied honestly. He stomach dropped even more now that he knew Luffy could feel it too. Something like this was never a good sign. The last time they felt like this was when a phyco maniac named Teach tried to ram him with a car. Ace got lucky that Luffy was there, or else he would've died years ago. "Luffy, sit down. I have bad feeling about this."

Luffy nodded as his head disappeared behind the seat. Ace heard the click of the seatbelt as it slipped into place. The sound of plastic against hard fabric was heard before it was quiet for the third time. Though, this time, the quiet wasn't awkward, it wasn't peaceful, it was tense. So tense that Ace could feel the vibrations in the air.

Ace was about to force himself to relax, when he saw it. The screech of another person's tires echoed through the trees and a bright headlight was seen near the top of another curve. Normally this wouldn't of bothered Ace, but the fact that he could see headlights on _this _road was enough to make Ace break out in cold sweat.

This was a one-way road, yet he clearly saw the front of a car.

Ace distinctly heard Luffy scream a warning, but he couldn't make out the words. He didn't even have the time to turn the wheel, or slam on the breaks before the car slammed head-on. A sickening crunch was heard as metal slammed against metal, but Ace couldn't care less.

Then something flashed before his eyes. For a brief second, Ace swore he could see a hand made of _lava _coming towards him, aimed straight at his chest.

The world went black around him.

* * *

_"Thank you . . . for loving me . . ." _

_"ACEEE!" _

_"We need to live a life without regrets!" _

_"I only have . . . One regret. That I couldn't . . .see you fulfill . . . Your dream. But I'm sure you can do it! Because . . . you're my brother."_

_" . . . And someday . . . bearing the weight of all those centuries upon his back...a man will come forth to challenge this whole world to a fight. Sengoku . . . you are living in fear of that great battle that will someday engulf the entire world . . . when somebody finally finds that treasure . . . the world will be turned upside down!"_

_"ONE PIECE . . . DOES EXIST!"_

Ace jerked in his bed, his head snapped up as quickly as it could, startling the two people next to him. He ignored both of the mystery people, trying to calm his raging breath. He was covered in cold sweat, and the words that he swore he heard replayed in his head. What. The. Hell.

"Ace!" Ace was jerked out of his thoughts as a body slammed into his. Ace yelped in surprise and pain, as he tried to pull the man off of him. He could hear deep laughter, but he couldn't see whom it was coming from. Ace growled a warning to the man on top of him, finally figuring out who it was. Though, he was rather impressed that he could even _think _with all the words that echoed in his head.

_"Thank you . . . for loving me." _

Those words bugged him the most. He knew that voice, which was _his _voice, yet those words have never left his mouth. It seemed so _real, _so full of _pain _yet there was relief in the tone too, like this person—him, whoever, really thought that no one loved his before this moment. Ace defiantly didn't feel that way.

"Get off of me, Thatch." Ace growled when the figure didn't move. Finally, he felt the weight lifted of him, and he saw a grinning Thatch and a snickering Marco. It surprised him in the least, why were they here? Then another, more important thought hit the man, _where was he? _

He defiantly didn't recognize the white walls that surrounded him, or the uncomfortable bed that he was currently laying on. Nope, Ace had never been here before, so why were he here now?

"You're in the hospital, yoi." Marco said, seeing the look on his friend's face. Dark brown eyes turned to look at him and gave him a blank stare. "You don't remember? You're car crashed a few nights ago. You guys were in pretty bad shape when they brought you here. We got a call immediately, so we rushed over."

"You made us worry for a while, Ace." Thatch grinned at him. He tugged on his ascout nervously, and constantly glanced around his shoulders as if a floating needle would suddenly impale him. Ace had known about Thatch's fear of hospitals for a while now, so Ace knew that whatever happened was bad. "Luffy woke up last night, but the doctors wouldn't let him see you. He was pretty hysterical, claiming that he heard some weird quotes and needed to talk to you. I think he said on of them was 'thank you for loving me' or something like that. Of course, the doctors didn't like the fact that he was hearing voices, and gave him some medication. He really hasn't woken up after that, just to eat. Bottomless pit indeed."

The fact that Luffy had heard that quotes too, unnerved Ace even more. Something was up, and Ace wanted to get to the bottom of it. "So Luffy's okay?" he got two nods in response, and Ace let out a breath of air that he didn't know he was holding in. "Good. I'm glad he's okay." He didn't want to comment on the quotes. "So what happened to the person that rammed us? I don't remember anything after being hit. My head still hurts pretty bad."

Thatch and Marco exchanged glances, before Marco spoke up, running his hands though his blonde pineapple hair. "We don't know actually. We probably would've sued them if there was someone in the car, yoi."

Ace's frown deepened. "What do you mean?"

"There was nothing there, Ace. Nothing at all. The police even ran the license plate and they couldn't find any matches, yoi. The only thing they found was a gun with these strange bullets, a snail-like creature, black sand and a note that said, 'One Piece does exist.'" Ace's feeling of discomfort worsened as Marco continued on with his speech. "The police think it might've been an attempted murder, but they couldn't confirm anything. It happened around three nights ago, so you've been unconscious for a while. Did you piss anyone off recently? Know anyone that might want to murder you, yoi?"

Ace snored, thinking of all the people that hated him. "I've pissed off more people that I can count, but I don't think any of them would want to _murder _me." He decided to change the subject. "Where's Luffy? Can I see him?"

"I _think _he's sleeping." Thatch hummed, "I mean, it's to quiet. If he were awake, you'd hear the yelling and the explosions. Besides, you really need to rest, you've got a few broken ribs and a hell of a lot of cuts and burns."

"I want to go see Luffy," Ace said stubbornly. His friends and roommates looked at him, possibly thinking that he just wanted to say something stupid. It was the exact opposite to Ace, though. He wanted—no, he _needed_ to talk to Luffy about those dreams. They bothered Ace to no end. The young adult _knew _they mean something and he was not about to sit around and wait for another . . . surprise that's going to smack him in the face. Literally.

After not getting any responses from his two roommates, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, fully intending to reach his brother even if it hurt him even more. Thatch and Marco immediately yelled out protests to his action and rushed to push him back in his bed.

"Ace! What the hell are you doing, yoi?" Marco said, his blonde hair bounced on top of his head. He put a hand on Ace's shoulder and forcibly pushed him back into his bed. "You need to rest, yoi! Now's not the time to be stubborn!"

"Yeah," Thatch agreed as he grabbed Ace's feet and put them back into the white bed. "You need to calm down. We'll talk to Luffy for you, 'Kay? What did you want to say to him?"

Ace glared at both of them, but since they had been living together for years, the glare lost its affects after a while. His hard glare met Marco's lazy one and Thatch's curios one. "You can't laugh." Ace sighed finally giving in; his head dropped only for a second before he picked it back up. He hated feeling bed-ridden. He hated people looking down on him while he was sick or injured. "At all. This needs to get to him _word for word." _

"Alright, alright," Thatch's smile had returned and he held his hands up in surrender. "I promise we won't laugh. What'd you want to tell him?"

"Ask him if he recognized any of the voices," Ace said calmly, never taking his eyes off of Thatch. "And if he does, make him tell me who they are." Thatch rolled his eyes at such a simple statement, but didn't laugh like he promised, and rushed out the door.

Ace's eyes followed his every moment until the door slammed shut, and a silence overtook the duo. Marco's lazy gaze lingered on the door just like Ace's before he set it on Ace himself. Marco was the first people to break the silence, "So what did you hear, yoi?"

Ace barley turned his head and his eyes seemed shadowed by his hair, but Marco could practically feel the confusion that radiated off of the smaller man. "I don't know. Just a bunch of random words that seems meaningless."

"Yet they're still bothering you, yoi." Marci noticed. "You gonna tell me anything?"

"I could," Ace said honestly, "But I'm confused, frustrated and I've got this horrible feeling in my stomach that won't go away. Something's about to happen, Marco. Something big. I can tell. The car crash and the quotes seemed to prove it."

"Quotes?" The older man mused. He put a hand to his chin. "Do you recognize any of them?" The man took Ace's headshake as a 'no'.

"I don't recognize any of them," Ace said, shaking his head as his gaze flickered out the window. "But I feel as if I've heard them before. Those words weren't random."

"So, are you going to tell me, yoi?" Marco asked with a small smile on his face. "Or are you going to keep me guessing?"

"There were six quotes, but only three of them bother me." Ace said, not taking his eyes off the window. "You already heard one of them from Luffy, '_Thank you . . . for loving me!' _That was one of the ones that bothered me because it was _my voice. _Who ever said that can copy my voice exactly. They also sounded like they were crying. But I could hear the happiness in his voice. The next one was someone calling my name, '_ACEEEE'_. Who ever it was sounded _extremely _upset. This one also bothered me a lot because it sounded like _Luffy. _Exactly like Luffy. I've never heard Luffy sound so upset before." Ace sighed, watching the wind slowly blow the trees.

Marco never once took his eyes off of Ace. "Any others, yoi?"

"Yeah," Ace frowned. "But they don't make much sense. I heard my voice in two of them, then pop's voice in another. I think they went like; '_We need to live a life without regrets!'_ and then, '_I only have . . . One regret. That I couldn't . . .see you fulfill . . .. Your dream. But I'm sure you can do it! Because . . . you're my brother._' And this one kind of sounded like pops, _' . . . And someday...bearing the weight of all those centuries upon his back...a man will come forth to challenge this world. Sengoku... you are living in fear of that great battle that will someday engulf the entire world... when somebody finally finds that treasure...the world will be turned upside down!_' But the last one didn't bother me until you told me what was in the car. '_One Piece does exist!_' But the question is . . . What the hell is 'One Piece'?"

"You sound very conflicted, yoi." Marco said, fiddling with his hands. "But you sound like you know who those voice belonged to, so why'd you ask Luffy about it?"

"For confirmation," Ace replied easily. "If Luffy is having the same dream I am, I can rule out coincidences. There is something messing with us."

Marco snorted at that. "Oh yeah? What is it then? Aliens? Weird government-people? Someone front another world, yoi?"

Ace's gut tightened at the last one, and immediately, Ace knew that this wasn't something from his world, but instead of telling Marco what he though, he just let out a loud sigh. "I don't know Marco. But I have a feeling that it isn't going to be something that we're use to."

* * *

**"Next on 'Confusion Ensured . . . "**

"I feel like a freaking pineapple!"

"Dimension traveling sounds awesome!"

"Luffy shut up! I don't care how much you want your food!"

"I'm so bored ~"

"One Piece . . . That name bothers me more than anything."

"It's here. That 'something big' that I was talking about? It's here."

"You worry too much, yoi."

**R&R**


	2. Stormbringer

**Wo~ Next chapter. Sorry for the grammar mistakes ahead of time, I haven't gone back over it and I'm too lazy to get anyone to read it. If you could ****_kindly_**** point out any mistakes I might've made, I'd appreciate it :) My spell-check does get everything. **

* * *

_"I'm going to become Pirate King!" _

"I'm bored ~" Luffy complained as he flopped limply on the couch. They had been released from the hospital a day ago, but the doctors had given the strict instructions not to do anything athletic while their wounds heal. Marco had taken this time to lock Ace in his room and practically tie the young adult to the bed frame so he wouldn't move. Ace was pretty sure that Marco and Thatch were both quietly laughing behind his back.

"Can't do anything about it, Lu." Ace answered, completely bored himself. There was nothing on the T.V, all his friends were on vacation or something like that, and his house-mates, Marco and Thatch, would do nothing more than laugh at the two boys every time they tried to say something.

Ace suddenly felt someone ruffle his hair in an affectionate way. Ace growled at them, not really in the mood to deal with Marco or Thatch's antics. "Stop that," He complained, jerking his head away from the hand. "You're going to mess up my hair!"

"Ha!" Thatch started laughing hysterically for some reason. "You don't have a hair-doo, fire pants. Unlike me, you have no style at all. Besides, you look cute and helpless when you're sitting on the couch like that."

"Aww~" Luffy grinned at him from the couch on the other side of the room. "Ace, Thatch is right! You're so cute!"

Ace glared at the smaller boy. "I don't want to hear you talking, idiot. You're in the same position I'm in."

"Ace, quit picking on your little brother, yoi." Marco said as he walked out of his room. A toothbrush was in his mouth, and he didn't have a shirt on, so his tattoo was clearly seen by everyone.

"He started it," Ace grumbled, trying to defend himself. Marco snorted, but didn't say anything, while Thatch had disappeared into the kitchen, probably starting to make breakfast."

"Just turn on the T.V, yoi. Or take a nap." Both Ace and Luffy started panicking when he said the word 'nap'. Yesterday, Luffy had dubbed both 'sleep' and 'nap' taboo words that were not to be said in the house. Of course, Marco and Thatch didn't pay any attention to the warnings.

"I'm not taking a nap," Luffy said stubbornly, shaking his head from side to side in a rapid-fire action. "I don't like naps."

"Seriously," Thatch popped his head out from the kitchen. His brown hair had some sort of batter in it, something white with chucks of chocolate chips. "What it your problem with naps? Ever since the accident, you've barley gotten any sleep! You guys need to rest as much as possible."

"Nightmares," Luffy pulled the blanket over his head, hiding his eyes from everyone. "They're awful! There's always a bunch of screaming and blood! And these weird people will show up every one in a while that looks like someone me or Ace knows. I saw you once, Marco! And I've seen Ace! There's also Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook! Except Franky looks really weird, Chopper's a reindeer and Brook is a skeleton!"

Ace blinked once. Okay, when he said he was having strange dreams, he had never had _that _strange of dreams. But, he would have to admit that he had seen some of his friends in the dreams as well. Most of the times, the dreams focused on a very bloody war, but other times, he's on a ship with a pirate flag or strange islands.

"You're imagination is acting up, yoi." Marco told the young teen. His blank expression never changed, but his eyes seemed to sparkle in amusement. Ace could tell the Marco was tying to humor the poor kid. "You should take your meds, they'll stop the dreams. The doctors said it's because of PTSD from the accident."

"It's not PTSD," Ace muttered, mostly to himself, but Marco heard it. Ace and Thatch have this running joke that Marco's really a mythical creature that has amazing hearing because he manages to find out _everything._

Marco raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Then what is it, Ace? Fried eggs? Space aliens? Another dimension?"

"Dimension traveling sounds awesome!" Luffy exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, grinning widely. All traces of his earlier emotions were down the drain and the boy jumped off the couch, much to everyone's protests, ran towards the T.V and hit it with his fist. Luffy blinked at the T.V, as if he was confused on why it didn't turn on. "The T.V's not working."

Ace and Marco rolled their eyes at the childish behavior, before Ace pushed himself out of his couch (He was pretty sure that Marco was about to pull all his hair out in frustration) and walked over to Luffy. "You have to click the power switch, Lu."

Ace clicked the button and the T.V flared to life. Even though Luffy had seen it happen thousands of times, Ace's little brother could never get over the fact that he could watch pictures moving in a box.

Luffy then dragged himself back to the coach and threw himself over the pillows. He grabbed one of the green pillows and used it the prop himself up so he could see the TV. Ace lost interest in the show as soon as the stupid looking character started talking. Instead, he looked out the window at the dark clouds forming overhead. Ace frowned, a little while ago, it was nice and sunny. Since when did weather change so fast?

Marco noticed it at the same time and let a heavy frown, not unlike Ace's own frown, sag on his face. His lazy eyes darted around the window before he sighed and leaned back on a countertop. "Looks like it's going to rain soon, yoi."

"Yeah," Ace agreed. "I noticed that too. The storm came on pretty fast, huh?" He turned so that he was facing Luffy and took one of the M&M's that was in the bowl on the coffee table that was separating the two couches, and threw it at Luffy. Luffy blinked when the M&M hit him, then turned towards Ace.

"Hmm?" He looked at his brother with those big questioning doe eyes that could melt the hearts of even the most selfish people.

Ace held his hand out. "I want to check the news. Can I have the remote?"

"What?" Luffy cried out in outrage, hugging the remote even closer to him. "No way! Fairy Tail is on and I'm not letting you change it! Do you know how rare Fairy Tail plays on this channel? It's usually something dumb that T.V4kids makes! This is the original show!"

"Isn't Fairy Tail an anime?" Ace had the sudden urge to rub his temples. "Animes aren't in English, Lu. You can't understand what's being said."

"There are subtitles." Luffy said stubbornly, he eyes narrowed possibly thinking about what his brother would do next. Ace was not the one to give up, even if it was something as stupid as a remote battle.

"It's bad for your health." Ace muttered still glaring at his younger brother who still refused to yield the remote.

"Pfft! Like the news is any better! All the talk about is 'oh there's a 90% chance it will rain' then it never does! And then they go on and on about a murder that happened weeks ago and the guy that did it is already in jail—and then where there's not new murders, they go and find another murder that's no where near here! And then if there aren't and murderer stories, they start talking about some random school crap when it's summer! I'm trying to enjoy my vacation and I don't—Hey! Ace! Give it back!" Luffy yelped as the remote was ripped from his hands. Ace then snaked his hand back with a large smirk on his face, not taking his eyes off his unpredictable brother.

When Luffy saw that Ace wouldn't give the remote back to him, he sunk back into his seat and sulked. Luffy then pouted and Ace had to look away before he was affected by Luffy's cuteness. "I'm not falling for that, Lu. Let me watch the news."

"Fine. Jerk."

Ace clicked the channel button just when a large rumble of thunder made the whole house shake, starling it's inhabitants. Rain pelted down on the window and a flash of lighting streaked through the sky. Ace stared out the window in amazement, not expecting such a large storm.

"Well, that just appeared out of nowhere, yoi." Marco commented as he walked towards the couch Ace was on and flung Ace's legs off so he could sit. Another rumble of thunder was heard and this time it was Thatch that came into the living room, probably thinking that the brothers did something.

He stared out the window, unblinking, before he turned to everyone else in the living room and said in a completely serious voice, "What'd you do to make the sky so pissed at you?"

"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, MORON!" Ace yelled at his friend. Thatch just looked at his skeptically, but accepted the answer. Shrugging, he walked back into the kitchen and Ace swore he heard the cook mutter, "They always seem to piss off Mother Nature, don't they?"

Ace sighed and leaned his back against the couch, closing his eyes. Exhaustion overtook him, but he refused to go to sleep, imagining the dreams that came with it. So instead, he just closed his eyes, listening. Waiting for something to happen.

_"Sometimes the blood rushes to my head and I feel like, if I run, I'll lose something important." _

Ace's eyes shot open. It was his voice again, just like before. It was the same voice that came out of his mouth, and it was the same voice that uttered the words 'Thank you for loving me'. Ace didn't know who this person was, because it sure as hell wasn't himself, but whoever they were they needed to get out of his head.

It was then that he noticed that it had gone quiet around the room. Even Thatch's humming from the kitchen stopped. He looked around and for the first time, he noticed everyone, including Thatch, staring at him. Their looked at him in confusion, silently asking him questions that he didn't understand.

Then it clicked. They had all heard that voice. They had all heard his voice.

"Um . . . " Luffy said, looking around the room in question. "Ace did you say that?"

"No," Ace answered honestly. He found himself looking around the room like Luffy, expecting another person to be there. His body stiffened as he realized something. He and Luffy had heard these kinds of things before—but Marco and Thatch had never heard what they heard.

"Marco. Thatch. Did you hear that too?" Ace asked them, shifting his position on the couch so he could see both of them. He was rewarded with two nods.

"Is this what you and Luffy were talking about?" Thatch asked. "The weird voices that sounded like your voices, but yet different? Because, man, that was creepy." Ace nodded at his friend, signifying that he had heard these before.

_"Compared to the 'righteous' greed of the rulers, the criminals of the world seem much more honorable. When scum rules the world, only more scum is born."_

There it was again. Just this time, it was a new voice that Ace had never heard before. Marco and Thatch looked as lost and Luffy and Ace felt. Never had he heard these quotes except when he was asleep. He had seen pictures too—giant pirate ships, laughing people, a war, blood, death. There was always the death that came with the dreams. No matter how happy or how sad, there was always something wrong.

_"Pirates are evil!? The Marines are righteous!? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!"_

"Pirates?" Thatch asked himself quietly, slowly easing his way into the living room with everyone else. "There aren't any pirates here. There haven't been for hundreds of years. So, what the hell is it talking about?"

"We don't know." Luffy said, as he glanced at Ace. "We've been having these kinds of things for a while now, but no one else heard them. It always has something to do with pirates or marines. I don't know what it all means, but I feel like something is trying to warn us about an upcoming problem."

Thatch hummed a response, looking on the young teen. "Yeah, I had that feeling too. But I still don't get it—"

_"You want to keep everyone from dying? That's naive. This is war. People die."_

"That sounded like Luffy, yoi." Marco commented, then he chuckled, ignoring the fact that he was hearing voices. "Except a darker version of him."

Luffy pouted. "I wouldn't say anything like that! Besides, I'm not in a war and I don't plan on being in one."

_"Protecting what we cherish most as men is the reason why we formed this pirate crew!" _

Then before anyone could comment, another scream ripped through their heads. One sounding so broken, so full of pain that Ace wanted to cover his ears. It made it even worse sense he knew whom the voice belonged to.

_"I COULDN'T EVEN SAVE EVEN ONE OF MY NAKAMA!"_

Then lighting flashed, lighting up the room, before the power shut off, leaving everyone in darkness.

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**So~ There were lots of quotes in that chapter. I had fun writing them. And yes, before you ask, they are all from the anime. **

**And so, OP Ace and Luffy should be making an appearance int he next chapter or so.**

**Next on _Confusion Ensured . . . _**

"Pirates? Marines? What the hell is this world?"

"Ah. That would be nice. Really nice. IF WE COULD ACTUALLY DO THAT!"

"The government keeps secrets for a reason. Weather the world needs to know or not, it's not our place to decide these things."


	3. The Appearance

**_Okay, next chapter is up. I have a really important Author's note at the end, so I'd appreciate if you read it. Again, sorry for the grammar mistakes. I don't have a beta and I'm too lazy to look it over after I just finished writing it. _**

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_"People dreams . . . Will never die!"_

"Is everyone okay?" Thatch's voice filled the dark room. Ace looked around frantically, but he could only see the outlines of the others around him. The storm only let off a little light, not enough to see everyone's expressions.

Ace rubbed the back of his head. "I'm fine. It's just a power outage. I don't think any of us were injured."

"Yeah," Thatch muttered, pacing throughout the room. "But still that scream—"

"Oi, Oi." Luffy's hands went to cover his ears, trying to block out that memory. "I don't want to think about that. Let's just ignore it, okay?"

"It was pretty creepy, yoi." Marco muttered, shifting his position on the couch. Ace let out a sigh, not commenting on 'the scream'. He didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to hear about it, and he certainly didn't want to be reminded about it. The scream sounded so much like _Luffy _that he couldn't bear thinking about it.

The lights flickered back on slowly, but it was fast enough to make Ace's eyes sting from the sudden brightness. He shaded his face with his hands and surveyed to room once more, making sure everyone was okay. The older teen let out a sigh of relief when he saw no one was injured, just shaken up.

"This is one wicked storm," Thatch commented, pressing both of his hands to the window. His warm body created fog as soon as it was in contact with the cold window. Thatch smiled a little bit and drew a smiley face, completely ignoring everything else.

"I feel like I'm in a horror story." Luffy chirped happily. He then proceeded to turn off the TV (Even if the screen was already blank) and walk over to Ace. The younger boy squeezed himself between Ace and Marco, smiling with Ace groaned. "Go back on the other couch."

"Nope," Luffy said, way to happy for the mood in the room. "I want to be with you incase those weird voices come back. They're starting to become really creepy and I don't want to sit on the couch alone."

"We're in the same room." Ace pointed out with a smirk, thinking he's won the argument.

"So? I could die on the couch over there and you wouldn't know until you checked on me. If I started to die here, then you'd know."

"I would've thought you were sleeping."

Luffy laughed with his usual 'shishishishi' of laughter before he attached himself to his brother's arm with an iron grip. Ace sighed as he realized he wouldn't be swayed by anything anyone said and let his brother stay on his arm.

_"Friends or foes? That's something you'll have to decide on you own!" _

"And the voices are back," Thatch sighed, turning his body around to face everyone in the living room. "I was hoping they'd go away. I honestly can't see own you two dealed with these." He looked directly at Ace and Luffy when he said this, not taking his eyes off the two of them.

Ace simply shrugged. "You're getting off better than we are. You haven't seen the images. They're a whole lot worse than this. Besides, I think there're giving us clues."

"Clues?" Marco's lazy eyes looked at the ceiling. "Clues to what? I'd love if they, whoever they are, would give us more clear clues. Theses are confusing and make no sense, yoi."

"Then shut up an listen. Find the pattern. Find the meaning, then you'll find the answer." Ace said calmly. "Everything has an answer and a reason."

_"He must be hurting so much right now! I should be with him when he's hurting! that's what friends are for! LUFFY!" _

Everyone's eyes went directly to Luffy, who was blinking in confusion. "Huh? There mystery voices know me." Luffy put a hand to his chin in though. "But the mystery voice said I was in pain. I'm not in pain. Hey, Ace, am I in pain?"

Ace raised an eyebrow. "How should I know? It's your body. You tell me."

"Ah, I don't think I'm in pain."

"That's good," Ace replied honestly. The last thing he wanted to deal with was his little brother screaming his head off and Marco and Thatch doing nothing to help him. They'd gone through that routine before and it wasn't an experience Ace wanted to repeat.

"Hmm," Luffy hummed, closing his eyes slightly. The room was quiet now—no new voices echoed through the occupants' heads and there was no more screaming. They were all glad for that. Maybe the screaming had finally ended. "I think the voices stopped."

"Thank god," Thatch put a hand to his chest as he tried to calm his breathing. Marco was doing the same, but not as dramatically. Ace and Luffy weren't breathing hard, but were still shaken up from the experience. It wasn't anything new, but it was scary. Even though Ace wouldn't admit it to anyone, he found himself wrapping the blanket that covered him tighter around his shaking body.

"I don't think it's over, Thatch." Luffy said, opening his half-lidded eyes fully revealing the big, bright orbs that Ace came to know so well. "I think it was just the beginning. Whatever that was—It was just a warning. Ace's right. Something is going to happen, those were just the clues."

"Pirates?" Thatch snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, his hair bounced like a blob on top of his head. "It was mentioned a few times—Pirates and marines. If anything, those are our biggest clues, if what Luffy is saying is correct."

Ace snorted, similar to what Thatch did seconds ago. "Marines? Pirates? What the hell is this world?" The blanket was pulled tighter around his body to give himself extra reassurance.

"How do you know if it's another world, yoi?" Marco asked everyone, but he directed his attention on Ace. "It could be the future, that is, if it's not some stupid pranks that the neighborhood kids are pulling on us."

"Good prank or not, they wouldn't take it this far." Ace frowned, but his eyes glazed over as he thought of Marco's words. What if it was a simple prank? But that wouldn't make any sense—Ace and Luffy have had _dreams _on this subject. The kids around here couldn't do that unless they possessed really weird magic(Assuming magic could mess with people's dreams). "And I doubt it's from the future. We know some of those voices—heck! We've heard _each other. _There is no way that this is from the future. It's got to be from another world."

Luffy cuddled his legs up against his chest, clearly shaken up about something. "It's from another world." His voice was laced with such conviction that Marco had a hard time doubting him, trying to get the kid to see reason. Everyone's eye's bore heavily on the young teen, causing him to shift uncomfortably, but he got the silent question radiating from each of them, _how?_

"I had a dream," Noticing the disbelieving glances the kid quickly added, "I'm not kidding! But it was different from the ones that me 'n Ace usually have. It was a battle—but it was different. I could hear and understand what the people were saying."

"Did you recognize the people?" Thatch walked over to Luffy and out a comforting hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. As silly as it may sound, they were desperate for any new information at this point, be it dream or newspaper.

Luffy slowly nodded, his eyes grew dark. "One of them was me—but he was older . . . And he had this really big scar on his chest, like an 'x'." Luffy found himself tracing the exact spot where he saw the scar over his own chest. "The other man was a guy that went to jail recently for that murder and whatnot. It was on the news, but I think his name was 'Marshall D. Teach' or something of the sort."

"Teach?" All of the other occupant's eyes narrowed. They all new, or heard of, the man in question and all had horrible experiences with him. When Ace was ten, the man had purposely tried to run his over with an old truck that he found in someone's driveway. Marco and Thatch had similar near-death experiences caused by the man.

"Yeah, Teach." Luffy nodded his head rapidly. "Well, me 'n that guy were fighting and we had all these cool powers and stuff, when Teach commented about 'Ace's death' or something like that. Then other me was really pissed off and told him that he was a traitor and the reason that Ace was dead and everything which was really confusing because Ace isn't dead and he's sitting right there and I wanted to scream at him but I couldn't move my body at all—"

Thatch ruffled the nervous boy's hair, then patted his shoulder again. "You're getting off track, buddy."

Luffy blinked, before he slowly nodded and took calming breaths. "So yeah. Other me attacked him and then there was a lot of screaming, some blood and a whole lot of stupid insults, but I couldn't really make out anything until both of them jumped back looking really tired and beat up. Other me was really pissed because he called Teach a 'nakama killing bastard that deserved to rot in a place worse than hell' then Teach said that 'they were all going to end up in hell anyways'. There were some more stupid insults, then Teach told other me that he was going to put me out of my misery and reunite me with my brother. I woke up after that."

To say that Ace was unnerved was an understatement. It wasn't because Luffy had a dream like that—no, that dream only proved something that Ace didn't really wanted to be proved. The lines 'Thank you for loving me' had been bothering him since he first heard them. Now he knew why.

Those words were his last words he had said to his brother before dying in his arms.

Ace wasn't really sure how he knew this, but it seemed realistic (not really if you look at the whole situation) enough that he died in this other world. Whatever happened apparently wasn't that pleasant according to Luffy's version of his other world's self's reaction, but it was enough to send Ace's head spinning.

"So Ace is dead, huh?" Thatch said jokingly, trying to brighten the mood. It worked a little. "Never would've though Hot-head had enough sense to die."

"Stop joking about that," Ace snapped at his friend, his eyes never once moved from Luffy's shaking form. Obviously the dream bothered him a lot, but Ace wasn't sure how to comfort his younger brother when he didn't even know what was going on.

Thunder blasted everyone's ears, reminding them that there was still a large storm outside. The storm looked like it was getting worse—rain pelted even harder on the window, and lightning flashed more frequently. Although this shouldn't of bothered Ace, he found himself walking towards the window and shut the blinds. He didn't want to be reminded about _another _problem that he had to face. Just thinking about how much damage this storm was going to cause made Ace's head hurt.

But what he didn't know at the time was this storm was going to cause _a lot _more trouble than he originally thought.

Marco picked up the T.V remote and examined it. "Looks like the storm took out our satellite—" That earned groans from Thatch and Ace. "—So what do we do now?"

"Go see a therapist?" Thatch suggested, playing with his hair. "I mean we're all hearing voices, so I think it would be good for us."

Marco raised a disbelieving eyebrow at his companion. "Do you want to drive out in a storm like this?" silence. "I thought not. Besides, we shouldn't tell anyone about this."

"Yeah,' Luffy agreed. "I don't want anyone finding out about it either. It's our secret, 'kay?" He held out his pinky to everyone in the room. "Pinky promise not to tell anyone?"

After everyone promised the young teen that they wouldn't tell anyone, the power went out again. Luffy yelped in surprise, but the others were expecting it. The lights had been flickering on and off right before it happened, so it wasn't that surprising that they lost power again.

What was surprising was the voice that followed.

_"If you were to go on a trip... where would you like to go?"_

Ace blinked once, forgetting about the earlier incident before realization hit him in the face. He _did not _want to deal with this _again. _Especially in the dark. His friends and brother groaned to, probably having similar thoughts.

Lightning flashed though the shut windows, and another rumble of thunder shook the house. The voices however, did not continue. Ace's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What the hell?"

"I don't kn—" Thatch started to say, before he was interrupted by the storm. A bright light shot though the window, shattering the lights and any other glass around the living room. Luffy yelped, but was too slow to do anything other than watch as the streak completely destroyed everything. When it stopped, the only thing left in one piece was the window that it came in from.

The jaw-rattling boom wasn't what Ace was expecting as an after affect. Thunder shook the house more violently than ever before. Ace heard Luffy scream, but the young adult couldn't help his brother now. His hands flew to his ears, trying to muffle to sound, but it ended before he made contact with himself.

Silence flooded the room as everyone tried to process what happened. _Lightning. _Ace realized with a surprised jolt. Lightning had just invaded his living room. That honestly didn't make him feel any better.

Ace jumped to his feet as fast as he could, leaning on the couch. "Is everyone alright?" He called, sincerely hoping that it didn't hurt one of his friends.

"Yeah," Two other voices—Marco and Luffy—called back to him. He heard Thatch cursing, so he assumed that the redheaded man was okay as well. Ace ran his hands through his hair, assessing as much damage as he could in the dark.

It was then that he noticed to two new bodies in his living room.

* * *

**Hahahaha. Cliffie.**

**Yay! Ace and Luffy finally appear! Anyways, I want to answer a few questions that you might have;**

Is Ace dead in the OP world?

**Why, yes. Yes he is. No joking ;P The reason I did this is because I like Luffy a lot more after the two year time-skip than I do before, and I couldn't have Luffy after the two year time unless Ace was dead. So wha-la! Theres going to be a really fluffy reunion in the next chapter with a should-be-dead Ace and an Extremely-powerful-Luffy. Then other others are going to be looking at the two with 'wtf' expressions. **

So Blackbeard has something to do with this?

**Yup! But I still can't tell you what yet :P You'll have to find out for yourself. **

Are any other OP characters coming in?

**Maybe. I haven't decided that yet. This story is suppose to be about Ace and Luffy, but I might throw Marco in there just for grins. I can't throw Thatch in there though, because, well, he's dead (So is Ace, but that's not the point). So yeah, don't expect and other characters coming. **

_**REALLY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ!**_

_**Okay, this is extremely important and I really want you guys to read this. I will be gone for around 3 weeks starting a week from Tuesday (Today?) so I won't be updating. I might manage to post another chapter in, but don't expect anything from me for a while :)**_

_**Sorry guys~**_

**Read and review! Point out my grammar mistakes if you could ;P That would help a lot. **


	4. New Revelations

**Yosh! I'm leaving tomorrow, so this wil be my last chapter for a while ;P Also, I have a poll for my next story on my profile. I'd love if you guys would vote! **

**The main reason I posted this chapter before I left was because I won't be able to post a chapter on my birthday, August 6th, so I'm posting this now~ Yay! Don't you guys love birthdays? **

* * *

_"We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails."_

By the time the power flickered back on, everyone had already noticed the guests. Luffy was interested in them to say the least, by Ace refused to let the boy get near the unconscious people.

"Ermm," Luffy said, struggling out of Ace's grip and jumping up from the couch only to walk over to the unwelcomed visitors currently unconscious in the middle of the living room. "Are they dead? They look kind of dead to me. Ah, never mind. They're breathing."

"Luffy!" Ace hissed, grabbing his brother's soft hand and yanked him back, glaring at him all the while. "What the hell do you think you're doing? They might be dangerous! We don't even know why they're here or how the hell they got here!"

"But they're unconscious!~" Luffy whined, but he let Ace drag him back over to the couch where he and Marco sat. "It's not like an unconscious person can attack you! Jeez Ace, I just wanted to poke them."

"Luffy! What have I told you about stranger danger?" Ace was glaring at the teen now, but it wasn't out of anger. He was pleading for Luffy to listen to him. All the bad feeling and stomach twists that he's been having . . . was coming directly from the strangers in their living room.

"I'm not a baby anymore!" His brother protested with a solid frown. Ace begged to differ, but he didn't comment. No matter how old Luffy was, he was still a baby to Ace. The boy will always be a small child to him, even if he can handle himself rather well.

"Meat~" One of the unconscious people groaned, then he buried his face into the hard carpet. "Sanji~ Food~" His voice was almost the same as Luffy's, just deeper, which unnerved Ace to no end. He checked his little brother to make sure, in fact, that it was _his _Luffy sitting next to him.

"Uh," Thatch said, grabbing a log from the fireplace and poking the shirtless guy in the back right where a nasty scar was and a purple tattoo. "Should we, I dunno, help them? They seem kind of harmless."

"Be careful, yoi." Marco warned Thatch as he continued to poke the shirt-less dude with a stick. "They might be assassins that are really good at acting. Ace has been in a pretty bad mood for a while now, I wouldn't be surprised if the government wants to kill him."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Ace snapped at the blonde-headed man, clearly pissed off. Luffy, of course, found this entire situation hilarious, mostly his brother's face, and started laughing at everything, which only made Ace even angrier. "Quit being so damn carefree!" He punched Luffy on the top of his head hard enough to make a large bump. "You're not suppose to be like this when someone sneaks into your house and pretends to be asleep! I agree with Marco, they're probably assassins, so let's just get them out of here already!"

Luffy tilted his head to the side with amusement clear in his features. His smile was shinning as bright as the sun even if it was a stormy day. "They're not faking sleeping, I can tell."

"Oh? Care to share how you know this information?"

Luffy laughed with his usual 'shishishi' before looking straight at the two bodies, not a trace of worry in his eyes. "I learned about it from Zoro. Whenever someone is sleeping their breathing gets deeper and shallower, something that you can't mimic for this long if you were awake. When you're sleeping you don't need as much oxygen when your awake, so your body semi-shuts down." Ace, Marco and Thatch were all gapping at the young boy who was oblivious to their looks. Luffy gently picked up his straw hat and put in on his head almost as if it were comforting him.

"How does _Zoro _know about that?" Ace asked his brother, recovering from the shock that his kid brother actually said something _smart. _Even in school, Luffy was never this smart, no matter what the subject was. The only helpful thing that his brother had was his keen, observing eyes that could catch every movement."Form what I can tell, Zoro is just a muscle-head with a knack for swords."

"Zoro~" The sleeping figure moaned again, turning his head away from everyone. What bothered Ace was he had yet to see either of the stranger's faces because of the dim lights and that they were both wearing some type of hats. Ace couldn't even tell the type of hats they had on.

Luffy wisely chose to ignore the intruder for now, and answered Ace question rather cheerfully as if he were proud of himself. "I doubt Zoro knows. I just got the information because he sleeps all the time and I noticed the differences in his body~ It's really cool. Shishishi."

Ace didn't even want to comment that he had just heard that his brother watches other people sleeping.

"So . . . " Thatch dragged on, once again getting everyone's attention. "What _should _we do with them?"

Marco shrugged, his lazy eyes darted around the room as if to look for more intruders. "Move them on the couch, yoi. They can't do anything if what Luffy says is true. Besides, one of them looks injured."

Ace nodded his head in agreement, before taking in consideration the whole situation. If these guys weren't here to harm anyone, then Ace should probably help them, especially since one is injured. If they were going to help them, then Ace needed to get a better light for the room and a first aid kit. Wordlessly, Ace walked out of the room to fetch the supplies.

He started rummaging around the kitchen, throwing things out of his way. Some thuds were heard in the other room—presumably Marco, Thatch and Luffy trying to move the people onto the couches, then there was silence.

That was, until he heard a mix of shouts.

"Holy shit!"

"No way! That's so cool!"

"Why the hell is there another-! "

Ace quickly grabbed that light and lit it, leaving the first aid kit in the kitchen, fearing that their 'guests' were attacking his friends and brother. When Ace flew in the room he did not expect to see Marco, Thatch and Luffy gathered around the _still _unconscious body of one of the people.

Ace's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What the hell is going on?"

"A-ace," Marco stuttered, which surprised Ace more than anything. Marco _never _stutters. "You really need to come see this." He pointed to one of the people.

And so Ace did.

However, he could honestly say he wasn't expecting _this_.

Luffy was lying on one of the couches, while _he_ was lying on the other. The only difference was they both looked older—more experienced. Ace's orange hat that he always had with him was around the stranger's neck, while Luffy's straw hat was on top of the other 'Luffy'.

Um, yeah. Ace wasn't expecting this.

**(A/N: I considered ending it there, but then you guys would have killed me, so carry on!)**

"Luffy?" Ace asked, looking at the body in front of him with a feeling of dread. This wasn't right, how the hell did _Luffy_ get so banged up like this? Was this even his little brother? He looked so different. Long gashes covered the boy's body, and bruises were already starting to form. What bothered Ace the most was the huge 'x' shaped scar that decorated his chest. . . .Exactly like the guy that Luffy—_his Luffy—_described in his dream.

Dear god _please_ let this be a dream_. _

"Nah," Ace turned his head around to see his brother looking at his doppelganger with some interest, before staring at Ace straight in the eyes. "That's not me. At least, I think it's not me. It's confusing, but you get it don't you? You know what this means, right?" Ace heard the undertone in his small brother's voice.

"Yeah." Ace said, looking back at the teen. Everything clicked at that very moment and Ace had to fight to stay calm. "It's them alright."

"Them?" Thatch asked, as Marco went to fetch the first aid kit that Ace had left behind. "What do you mean 'them'?"

Ace looked over his shoulder at the older man. "Y'know how we've said that we've been having weird dreams lately with people that look like us that are different?"

"Oh," Realization dawned over Thatch's face. "You think these people are from your dreams?" Both boys nodded. But that's impossible! That means that they would be from—"

"Another world," Ace agreed with a nod. "It seems pretty impossible, but it's the only logical explanation."

"What about lost twins?" Thatch suggested. Ace glared at the man until he shrunk back and held up his hands. "Alright, alright. They're not lost siblings. What about doppelgangers?"

"How could they have just randomly appeared in the middle of our room?"

"Erm . . . Unicorns?"

"Thatch, take this seriously!" Ace growled. "This isn't something to joke about!"

"Ace~" The Luffy doppelganger said in a rather broken voice as he flipped onto his side. "You promised. You said you wouldn't die."

Ace would be lying if he said that didn't unnerve him.

"Do you think he'll be waking up soon?" Luffy asked as Marco pushed Ace out of the way so he could reach the injured teen.

Ace watched in silence as Marco made quick work of the wounds, bandaging and cleaning them up ever so carefully. By the time he was finished, the Luffy-doppelganger looked like a mummy. Finally, Ace turned to Luffy and shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Maybe. Though, there is a chance that he may not wake up—"

Right as Ace finished his sentence, the teen's eyes shot open.

When the kid woke up, it wasn't like what Ace had imagined in his head. He expected the kid to slowly open his eyes and then freak out when he realized that he didn't know where he was.

Ace was proven completely and utterly wrong when the kid sat up as fast as he could before saying in a demanding tone, "Sanji food!" And then he fell back onto the couch, clutching his head and letting out another loud groan.

That reaction was so . . . Luffy. Ace didn't like it one bit.

Slower this time, the kid opened his eyes, looking around him. Apparently he hadn't noticed anyone else on the room because his eyes never lingered on one thing. It was like he was soaking up everything except the people.

He finally _did _notice the people, the first person that he recognized was non other than Marco. . The Luffy doppelganger's eyes widened and he let out a surprised gasp. "Marco? What the hell are you doing here?"

Marco's eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. This kid knew him? He probably shouldn't have been so surprised. There might've been another him in this kid's world—assuming he was from another world. "I should be asking you that question, yoi."

"Really?" The Luffy-look-alike sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I dunno. One moment I was fighting Teach and the next moment I'm here." The kid let out a puff breath and pouted, much like Ace's own Luffy does when he was upset about something. "And I was kicking his sorry ass too."

Ace took this as the perfect moment to intervene in their short and confusing conversation. "If you don't mind me asking, who the hell are you and why did you suddenly appear in our living room?"

The boy glanced up at the older man with slightly glazed eyes as if he were in deep thought before he closed them and grinned. "Oh, hi Ace. I already told Marco that I didn't know—" He stopped mid sentence and his eyes snapped open, almost popping out of his head. The boy was gawking at Ace as if he were seeing a ghost. "ACE?! Wha—How are you alive? What are you doing here? Is this a dream? Or a prank? Because if it's a prank I'm going to murder someone—"

"Mhhh," Ace's Luffy hummed something. "It's not a dream or a prank. You kind of just randomly appeared in our living room." He grinned, flashing his teeth before his expression turned thoughtful. "You live in the world of pirates, right?"

The other-Luffy was gapping at the fact that he was _standing in front of himself._ He didn't even register the question that was handed to him. "There's another me here." He said simply. Ace kind of pitied the man—he sounded as confused as everyone in the room felt.

Ace's Luffy grinned. "Yep! Me n' Ace had a theory that you're from another world, but we didn't prove anything. So, you're world is about pirates, right? That's so cool!"

Officially over his shock, the other-Luffy simply rolled his eyes, sinking further into the couch and rubbing his temples. "So I'm in another world? Great. Fantastic." He muttered to himself. "Just when I was about to get my revenge on that fat bastard." He said, then directed his voice towards all his onlookers. "Yeah, I'm a pirate. Don't you guys have pirates? Or marines?"

Ace leaned against the wall, taking everything in. "Nope, pirates are really rare in our world. But we do have marines." He paused and though over something. "Didn't you say I was dead in your world?"

"I don't see how you can accept that he's from another world so easily," Thatch muttered to himself. "It's not like this kind of stuff happens normally."

Other-Luffy ignored his comment, his bangs shielded his eyes so they couldn't se his expression, but they could feel his aura around him. Sad. Lonely. Depressed. "Yeah, Ace is dead. He died around three or so years ago in the war of Best. An admiral punched a hole straight through his chest." The boy's hand clenched and turned black, much to the surprise of everyone. "He died in my arms. His last words were 'thank you for loving me'."

Ace felt as if a bomb went off in his stomach. Even though he already knew this, it was different hearing it from someone who had actually witnessed his death. It's not that easy to hear that your chest had been punched through and then died in his little brothers arms. Immediately, Ace felt guilty, knowing how much pain this teen had gone through.

A stray though came to him not even a second after. "Hey, if your Ace is dead, then who's that . . . ?" He pointed to the other couch where his other-self was sleeping.

Other-Luffy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

This time Ace gestured with both of his hands towards the couch. "Go and see."

"Wait a minute!" Marco pushed the boy back down onto the couch when he tired to stand up. "You're injured, yoi. And it's not just little stuff. It's pretty major. You need to rest."

"I'm fine!" Other-Luffy threw his hands up in the air. "Little wounds like this can't slow me down. It's going to take a lot more for me to be seriously hurt."

"Little . . . ?" Marco found it hard to believe that this kid wasn't even bothered by all the gashed that were on his body.

"Uh!" Luffy said with a smile. "I've trained most of my life to become stronger." The boy stood up from the couch and slowly walked over to where Ace was pointed. Marco was right behind him incase the boy collapsed. Other-Luffy turned his head to look over his shoulder, "If I let little things like this bother me, then how can I achieve anything?"

"Normal people wouldn't be able to stand, yoi!" Marco massaged his temples in exasperation. "Honestly, you're just like Luffy! Our Luffy, that is, yoi."

"I _am _Luffy," Came the simple reply. "Other world or not, I'm still me. Shouldn't I be?"

"Hai, hai," Marco waved it off with an eye roll. "Whatever. This is so confusing that it's making my head hurt."

"You sure it's not just because you're thinking? The doctors do say that the more idiots think—"

"Finish that sentence Portgas, and I'll have your head hanging on my wall, yoi." Ace grinned at his friend, but held his hands up in mock defense. Slowly, he averted his eyes to watch the other-Luffy's reaction to his should-be-dead brother.

The reaction wasn't disappointing.

"_Ace_?"

* * *

**Ah, cliffie. Again. Hahaha, please don't kill me. **

**I'll be back August 12th! Seen ya later guys!**


	5. Start of the Journey

**I'm just going to say this now; I hate this chapter. **

* * *

_"You've gotten stronger, Luffy."_

After the other-Luffy's official flip off, everything was calm. Well, mostly. The other Luffy kept pacing around Ace's living room, saying how this shouldn't be possible and how Ace was dead, Marco was flipping out, trying to get the older teen to sit down, but the other-Luffy wasn't listening to a word he was saying. Thatch was in a corner, looking at both the other-Luffy and Ace as if they were aliens and kept muttering, "Dimension travel isn't possible. They're just tins. Yeah, that's right. Twins. Just normal everyday twins. It's not like they're from another world or anything. Because that's not possible, right?"

Finally, after the twentieth time of the other-Luffy saying 'Ace should be alive. He's dead. He's dead.' Ace snapped, "Godammit! Obviously he's not dead so sit down! You're going to drive me insane! Marco is going to drive me insane! Thatch, just shut up and accept it! Why the hell is Luffy being the only quiet one? It's freaking me out! So everyone, just sit and let's talk! Maybe actually do something important instead of chanting about how I was murdered!" The freckled man sent a glare in the Other-Luffy's direction. "Besides, I keep calling him other-Luffy in my head and frankly, it's getting annoying."

Other-Luffy held his hands up in surrender. "Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the ship this morning." He stopped as if to think for a second. "And for a name, just call me Mugiwara. Mugiwara no Luffy, that's what everyone calls me nowadays."

Marco cast a sideways glance at the teen. "People call you that?"

Mugiwara laughed. "Yeah! Well, everyone that wants to kill me and my nakama when they're pissed at me."

"People that want to kill you?" Ace gave a sideway glance at the boy, not understand what the hell was happening the other world. He could understand the marines and pirates, but he didn't understand a word the teen said after that.

Mugiwara grinned like he was proud of the fact the more than half the world wanted him dead. "Yeah! Though, it's not that big of a deal since that government would want me dead even if I hadn't raised a pirate flag. They'd kill pretty much anyone because of the blood that ran through their veins. That one of the main reasons Ace di—I mean, supposable died." Mugiwara glanced at his unconscious brother from the corner of his eye, seemingly worried. "Ace's dad was the late pirate king, Gol D. Roger, so of course the government would want to erase anything that had to do with him. Same with my dad, even though I don't know much about him. I think he's suppose to be the most wanted man in the world, or something like that."

Luffy looked at his counterpart in confusion, as if he didn't understand a major part of what was being said. "You mean that you and you're Ace didn't have the same dad? Are you half-brothers, then?"

"Family isn't all about blood, you know." Mugiwara grinned and laughed. "Me and Ace aren't related by blood at all! I only met him when we were seven, and he hated me back then! He tried to kill me every time I tried to talk to him! It was funny!"

Ace gapped at Mugiwara. He tried to hurt Luffy? Ace was the one that raised Luffy since he was a baby, he would never do something to hurt his little brother. Luffy was the only thing he had left before he met Marco and Thatch.

"Oh," Luffy said, going back into his 'I don't care anymore' face. He sat still for a second, but then slumped in his seat and let out a large sigh, looking at his brother with giant puppy dog eyes. "Ace I'm bored!~"

"Watch T.V or something, kid." Thatch suggested. "This is the only time we've actually had a civilized conversation in a long time. Plus, we seriously needed to figure out what's going on."

Luffy didn't look too happy about being excluded from the conversation, but he didn't look like he really cared either. The teen jumped over the couch, landed on the floor with an ungraceful 'thud' and raced to grab the remote. Luffy then switched on the TV and plopped right in his original spot between Marco and Ace.

As soon as the TV started speaking, Mugiwara jumped so high in the air that Ace still had trouble believing that this person was human. His wide eyes looked around as if preparing for an ambush that would never come. "What the hell is that?"

Luffy looked at the man as if he had just said they were out of meat. "What do you mean, 'what the hell is that?' It's a TV! Television! Don't you guys have that where ever you live?"

"No," Mugiwara cautiously approached the TV and poked it. When nothing happened, Mugiwara left his shoulders relax and he took his time to actually look at the TV. "This is so cool! It's a magical glowy box that shows pictures of people shooting each other with guns!" Ace though that he said the last part of the sentence a little too gleefully.

"There goes our civil conversation," Thatch muttered, sounding depressed. Ace snorted, trying to imagine a full conversation that didn't have any distractions of any kind. Yeah, no. Never going to happen. Although, he did find it funny every time Luffy changed the channel, Mugiwara would jump and then laugh.

"Ouch." Everyone in the room froze, turning their heads to look at the figure that was slowly trying to sit up, while scratching his head. "My head hurts." The other-Ace glanced around the room, clearly not recognizing it. "Where the hell am I?"

"A-Ace?" Mugiwara was looking at his should-be-dead brother with such longing that it made Ace's own heart wrench. Ace didn't even want to imagine what the boy went through.

_"Thank you . . . For loving me!" _

Okay, scratch that. He already thought about what the boy went through, he just didn't want to see anymore of it.

* * *

**ahhhhhhh. I was procrastinating all week, saying to myself, I haven't updated, I need to update. People are going to be pissed at me. **

**So then I get sick (I still am sick) and I can barely turn walk for a few days and I did nothing other than sleep. **

**So yup. Rushed chapter is Rushed. **

**But! There is good news! I'm currently about to post two new stories called 'Shattered' and 'Unexpected Emergencies'. **

**Little summary of Shattered:**

_** Shattered: 10-year-old Ace has been having these weird dreams about himself and Luffy as grown-ups. He didn't think anything of it until a certain man wearing a Straw hat decides to randomly pop out of nowhere. Literally. Time-travel!fic**_

**Little Summary of Unexpected Emergencies:**

_**Currently no-name: Luffy was abandon as a child, living alone on island. At the age of four, the Whitebeard pirates find him and decide to adopt him into the family. Now watch as Luffy gets to run across the Grand line, New world and all of the Blue's as a Whitebeard pirate. And not just any Whitebeard pirate, he's a Whitebeard Commander. AceLu Brotherly.**_

_**GO VOTE ON THE POLL THINGGY ON MY PROFILE**_

_**NOW**_

_**THAT'S AN ORDER**_

_**HAVE I GOT YOUR ATTENTION YET?**_

_**GO VOTE ON THE POLL**_

_**NOW. **_


	6. Survival of the fittest

**_Yay! Longer chapter!_**

* * *

_"Listen Luffy! I WILL NEVER DIE! How could I die and leave defenseless little brother alone?"_

Mugiwara was across the room, tackling other-Ace of the couch before anyone could blink. Ace couldn't help but think that the teen looked so much younger when he was desperately grabbing Other-Ace's shirt as if he were going to disappear if he let go.

"Ace," A broken sound that chilled Ace to the bone. Luffy's broken voice. "You're really here."

Ace hated this. He hated how _this _man looked like _his _Luffy. He hated how every time Mugiwara did something, Ace wanted to protect him. Ace hated how he felt as if his brother was standing right in front of him, telling him about everything. This wasn't _his _brother, dammit! This man was a pirate in_ his_ brother's body with _his _brother's attitude.

Soon enough, the teen had small tears leaking from his eyes; his head was buried into a very confused other-Ace's chest while he kept muttering things. "AceAceAceAceAceAce_Ace—"_ Another sob. "You promised! You promised you wouldn't die! What happened? Did you forget already? Don't make damn promised that you can't keep! How could you leave me like that? How could you leave _us _like that?" A wet cough, and the boy's anger diminished. "I missed you _so_ much."

_"Being alone is more painful than being hurt!"_

"Luffy?" Ace could see the gears turning in his counterpart's eyes, and then everything clicked into place. The gears stopped spinning, the brain shut down. Something flashed across the other-Ace's face. "Holy shit. Luffy!"

The man finally hugged Luffy back, not caring if anyone was looking. Ace felt his heart beat rapidly in his chest as he stared. And started. And stared. The two stayed in each other's arms, not moving as if their bodies were telling them years of stories that their minds couldn't.

"Awww! You two are so cute together!" Ace stared in horror at his brother. He probably picked that line up off the Internet, not even knowing what it means, and decided that he wanted to use it now. Why did his brother have such pathetic timing?

"Luffy!" Ace's hand was covering the teen's mouth in seconds, trying to prevent another strange sentence to come out of it.

Both the other-Ace and Mugiwara glanced up at the other two brothers. Mugiwara looked semi-annoyed, but other-Ace looked curious. "Oh? Another me and another Luffy? How interesting."

"You don't sound too surprised, yoi." Marco pushed himself off the couch and went to go stand against a wall next to Thatch. Luffy gladly took the extra space on the couch to stretch his legs and lay his head in Ace's lap, ignoring the rest of the world.

"Pineapple-head!" Other-Ace exclaimed in surprise, but he sounded happy. "Weird things happen on the grand line all the time." He shrugged. "What are you doing here, anyway? And who's—" Other-Ace stopped halfway through his sentence, finally recognizing the face that he though he'd never seen again.

_"Thatch?" _

"Oh right," Mugiwara said as if he remembered something. "You said that Thatch died in our world, right?"

"Our world?" Other-Ace said at the same time as Thatch squeaked, "Dead?"

Ace found this as the best time to tell his duplicate his theory, and save everyone from Thatch's freak out. By the time he finished explaining, other-Ace was nodding slowly as if he understood.

"Dimension travel isn't impossible," Other-Ace commented, quickly losing interest in the conversation just as Luffy had before. "I mean, I've heard about it from pops several times. Most of it involves a devil fruit mistake or something like that."

"You're world is ballshit insane," Thatch deadpanned.

Both the other-Ace and Mugiwara laughed at that. "Yeah, you're right." Other-Ace nodded in agreement. "You're world seems pretty peaceful."

Mugiwara snorted. "How boring. There's no adventure here."

"There is adventure here," Ace snapped. He was about to say something more, but his little brother snorted and cried, "No there's not!"

"Is to!"

"Is not!"

"Is to!"

"Is not!"

Mugiwara whistled, then laughed. "You two argued more than me, Sabo and Ace did when we were kids!"

Both brothers turned and gave the teenager confused glances. "Who's Sabo?"

"Eh?" Mugiwara looked absolutely dumfounded. "What do you mean 'who's Sabo?' He's our brother, of course!" Mugiwara turned to other-Ace. "Are they stupid or something?"

Ace smacked Mugiwara in the head, leaving a nice bump, which Ace was proud of. "Oi! We're not stupid! I didn't even know that we had another brother."

"If you guys have another brother, he's not welcome here, yoi." Marco crossed his arms over his chest, a scowl setting on his face. "Especially if he's anything like you. We currently have enough of you guys in the house."

"I doubt he's be here anyway," Other-Ace said, his voice a tad bit darker. "He died a long time ago."

Ace froze at his words, glancing at Mugiwara who was clinging to other-Ace. His respect for this kid was growing massively. This kid was nothing like his carefree idiot of a brother who can barley focus (Though they both act like each other from time to time). This kid wasn't a kid anymore. He was a man, someone who could beat Ace to the ground in a matter of minutes (He'd never admit that). Not only losing one of his brothers, but both? How was he still going? If Ace lost what Mugiwara had lost, he wouldn't be in this world anymore. Ace wouldn't have the will to live.

Instead, Ace put on his master poker face and nodded. "We've never met someone named Sabo, and I doubt we will." He ignored Luffy's moan of disappointment. "By the way, what are we going to call you?" He looked directly at other-Ace, meeting the pirate's gaze with his own.

Other-Ace grinned, not even asking why. He looked at his hands and clenched them into fists, his smile never leaving his face. "Just call me Hiken. Hiken no Ace."

That night, after everyone was asleep (Mugiwara and Hiken had taken residence in a guest bedroom while they were staying) Ace snuck out of his room and quietly walked down the stairs and out onto the front porch.

Ace grinned as he plopped down in the grass and lied on his back, looking up at the stars. There were millions of them that night; all of them seemed to be dancing around the sky like fireflies. Ace had always loved the stars, watching them had become one of his favorite things to do when his brother wasn't around to bug him.

Ace's grin never faded, even as the wind slowly whipped his hair around his face. He took a deep breath and let it out, making himself more relaxed. The grass tickled his bare back, but it didn't bother the young adult too much, he was in too good of a mood for anything to ruin it.

He thought about his crazy day so far, having two random people appear from another dimension? This was all news to Ace, yet for some reason he was exited. Everything about the two counterparts screamed 'adventure' something that Ace and Luffy rarely had in this cozy little city. Ace had wished for something to happen, but he never knew that something like this would occur.

"The stars are pretty here, aren't they?" A new voice interrupted his thoughts. Ace nearly jumped off the ground, his eyes shot open and he let out a surprised yelp. The newcomer just laughed and sat down next to him. Ace recognized him instantly.

Luffy.

But wait—no. This wasn't his Luffy. The scar on the chest was an obvious difference, along with the calm aura. Mugiwara's eyes were closed and a soft smile was on his face as if he were remembering something pleasant.

"Me and Ace always used to watch the stars with Sabo when we were kids." The teen's eyes opened and he stared at the sky much like what Ace was doing before.

"What are you doing here?" Ace asked with all the surprise he felt when the boy had first arrived here. "I thought you were asleep."

"Couldn't sleep. Nightmares." Mugiwara answered simply.

"Nightmares?" Ace raised an eyebrow. "About what?" Ace regretted asking the moment he saw Mugiwara flinch, his eyes closing tightly.

"My world. Ac—Sorry." He flashed an apologetic grin at Ace. "Hiken's death. That's always what most of the nightmares are about. I dream about Saboady too. The day I failed to save any of my nakama. I'm so lucky that they're all alive."

Ace didn't know about what happened at Saboady, and personally he didn't want to know any more sad moments in Hiken and Mugiwara's life, though he doubted he would get his wish. Trouble seemed to follow those two more than it followed Luffy, which was saying something.

"Tell me about you're nakama." Ace had heard stories of Luffy's friends from his brother, and he had even met some of them, but with all the differences in Mugiwara's world, he wanted to hear about them from someone who knows them best. "You said you were the captain, right?"

From the grin on Mugiwara's face, Ace knew he had asked the right question. "My nakama are amazing. Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brooke. Each of them has dreams and wishes that they want to be completed, and I know they will. All of them are incredibly strong! Zoro wants to become the master swordsman, Nami wants to create a map of the world, Usopp wants to become a brave warrior of the sea, Sanji wants to find All Blue, Chopper's dream is to become a great doctor, Robin wants to find the Rio Poneglyph which tells the true history, Franky wants to ride with his dream ship and Brooke wants to meet with his friend, Laboon."

"And yours?"

"I'm going to become the pirate king!"

Ace wasn't expecting that. Being a pirate king would mean that almost everyone in the world would hate them, why would someone want to be hated and despised? Especially Luffy who always loved positive attention. "Why would you want to do that?"

"For freedom," Mugiwara answered simply. "The pirate king has the most freedom in the sea."

Ace hummed a response, now understanding why Luffy would become a pirate. Freedom was something everyone desired, but almost none held. There were jobs to be done, problems to be fixed and all the other crap that was in his world. Mugiwara's world seemed like a life-or-death game. One wrong move and you die, yet you had the freedom to actually _move. _

"You're world is about how you survive, with freedom or without." Ace said, watching a shooting star fly across the sky. "My world is about living, without freedom. We don't have a choice, yet we aren't totally killing each other off."

"My world is better," Mugiwara said without a trace of hesitation.

_"If you don't risk your life, how can you create a future?" _

Ace smiled, not doubting the teen's words. "Yes. I figured you'd say that."

It took Marco, Thatch, Ace and Luffy about another day and a half to find out about Hiken and Mugiwara's devil fruit powers. It was in the morning, right before Luffy was about to go to school and Ace, Marco and Thatch to work. Hiken was having a narcoleptic fit, and of course, Mugiwara and Luffy thought this was the funniest thing in the world and started poking and pulling Hiken's face.

That didn't turn out to be the best idea when Hiken groaned then _set himself on fire! _Luffy yelped, scrambling away as quickly as he could. Mugiwara just blinked, pulled his hand away, covering it in some black metal material, before resuming poking his brother's face. The fire didn't even seem to be in mild discomfort.

"The hell?!" Thatch shouted, running out of the kitchen to go find something—probably a fire extinguisher.

"Ace!" Luffy cried happily, hugging his brother's leg. "He set himself on fire! Can you set yourself on fire?! THAT'S SO COOL!"

"What a surprise, yoi." Marco said nothing more, his lazy eyes didn't even widen.

Mugiwara just laughed at all their reactions, finding it even funnier than before. "It's okay. A—Hiken does this from time to time."

"Set's himself on fire, yoi?" Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mugiwara laughed. "Yep! And he falls asleep, but I'm pretty sure your Ace does that too, minus the setting himself on fire."

"Would you quit poking him? You're going to hurt yourself!" Ace pulled Mugiwara away from the burning man as fast as he could, hoping the boy wasn't already burned.

"I'm not going to burn myself," Mugiwara wined, much like a kid who wasn't allowed to play with sharp objects. He held up his haki-covered fist to show everyone. "See? I'm okay."

"What the hell is going on here?!" Ace looked like he was ready to freak out.

Mugiwara frowned and looked at his fist in confusion. "Haki. Don't you guys have haki here? I mean, how else do you protect yourself?"

"We can't cover our body part in steel—"

"Haki."

"Sorry. We can't cover ourselves in haki, yoi." Marco said, taking a long sigh and rubbing his temples. Just how messed up was Mugiwara's world?

"How do you guys fight?" Mugiwara pressed, not understanding about them not knowing haki. It wasn't that common on the Grand Line—Sure! —But back then they were only rookies who had no clue what they were doing. In the New World, haki was an essential took for survival.

"We don't usually fight," Ace crossed his arms over his chest. "Like I've said millions of times; we don't survive, we live."

"With no freedom," Mugiwara recalled. "Ah. But you seriously don't know how to fight?"

All three of them shook their heads.

Mugiwara grinned, flashing everyone his pear-white teeth. "Well then me and Ace are going to teach you. Besides, you might need it with us being here and all."

"What does that mean?" Luffy bounced up to the older version of him, eyes full of curiosity and wonder. Everyone, minus Thatch, who was still gone, was ignoring the burning man who was sleeping in his cereal.

"I had a dream last night." Mugiwara said, way to serious from anyone's liking. "It's not only us from this world. Others are here and I don't think there are our nakama."

"What—" Ace's sentence was cut off when Thatch burst into the room with a fire extinguisher, yelling, "DIE, FIRE, DIE!" And sprayed Hiken with the freezing, white foam.

The reaction was instant, Hiken bolted straight out of the seat and fell face fist onto the floor, groaning and muttering some not so nice curses. Groggily, Hiken opened his eyes, watching everyone, yet not completely aware of everything.

Luffy took one look at Hiken's form, before he burst out laughing, practically rolling on the floor. "You look so stupid, Hiken!"

"I don't want to hear that from you," Hiken snapped right back.

Thatch finally managed to control his breathing. "What the _fuck _was that?"

Ace could tell that Hiken was confused; he kept glancing around the room, from the fire extinguisher to Mugiwara's haki-covered hand. "What happened?"

Mugiwara giggled. "You set yourself on fire again."

"Oh. Oops."

"OOPS?" Everyone roared at him.

Hiken just held his hands up in the air in surrender. "Not my fault, I can't control my devil fruit power when I'm asleep."

"Devil fruit power?" Luffy said, tilting his head to the side so that his hat flopped lifelessly to the side. "Is that something you can eat?"

Mugiwara stuck out his tongue and wrinkled his nose in distain. "It tastes terrible." Both of the boys pouted at that.

"What's a devil fruit?" Thatch asked, still miffed from the 'people on fire' incident.

"A fruit that gives you inhuman powers, but it takes away your ability to swim." Hiken said, sounding like he was reading something from a book. "Me and Luffy both have one, except they're not that easy to come by and even harder to control. I ate the Mera Mera no mi, Mugiwara ate the Gomu Gomu no mi."

Ace was intrigued. "Fire and rubber?"

Mugiwara just laughed once more and pulled the side of his face, letting it stretch beyond normal human limits, while Ace set his hand on fire.

"I know I've said this before," Thatch said solemnly. "But your world is ballshit insane."

* * *

**Then end. **

**jkjkjk. Nope, not ending this story here! :DDD**

**Anywho, I'm feeling much better (You can probably tell) and I managed to update and important chapter! YES! Pay attention to the last part. Very important part. What Mugiwara says. Just a hind for what's to come. **

**Also, I have this little thinggy which some of you might want to read. This was going to be the first part of Hiken and Mugiwara's reuin, but I changed it because I like the other way better. **

"Lu?" The other-Ace asked, clearly confused. "What? Are you dead too? Why are you here?"

Mugiwara blinked as if pondering the question. "I don't think I'm dead. I never saw the light."

Other-Ace tilted his head to the side, a small smile forming on his lips. "God, Lu. You don't see the light when you die, that's just a legend." Ace was getting ready to smack his counterpart. Seriously, how could someone be so ignorant of their surroundings? After years of dealing with questionable situations in his life, Ace always noticed _everything _about the place he woke up in. Here, it seemed that both other-Ace and Mugiwara decided that the first interesting thing that they saw deserved their attention and they didn't care about everything else.

"Err." Ace suddenly felt extremely awkward. "As much as I hate to interrupt this strange bonding scene, I am, so deal with it." Smooth Ace, really smooth. What was he suppose to say now? Should he explain his absurd theory to the other-Ace?

"How strange," Other-Ace was examining Ace with a look of wonder, while Mugiwara was glaring at him. "There is another me here?" He looked straight at his brother. "Care to explain?"

Mugiwara laughed Luffy's traditional 'shishishi'. "Sure! So I was fighting Blackbeard then poof I ended up here! There's another me and the other you is really funny! Except he's a meanie." Mugiwara pouted at the last bit.

Ace could practically feel the fire racing to his face. "I am not a meanie!" He snapped, smacking Mugiwara on the back of his head.

**And that's it for today, people! **

**School also started today, so I won't be updating as often. Maybe.**


	7. To Kill a D

**I'm warning you right now that this chapter is going to be a little OOC**

* * *

"Oi, shitty gomu. Are you sure you're okay?"

Luffy just grinned and dug into his sandwich that Ace had packed for lunch. When he arrived at school that day, most of his friends flocked right up to him, asking his worriedly if he was hurt during the car crash. Luffy had no clue how his friend knew about it, but it was obvious that they found out not too long ago.

Lunch was the only time Luffy got to sit and eat with _all _of his friends. It made him sad, since they had other classes, but at least they could spend time together. Luffy wanted to ask them to come to his house, he even suggested it to Ace, but the suggestion was immediately shot down by not only Ace, but Hiken, Marco and Thatch as well.

Luffy wasn't the only one upset by this—He had a talk with Mugiwara right after the whole 'mera-mera no mi' incident. The young pirate captain had just grinned and told him to tell him about all of his friends when he got back from school.

At least someone was on his side . . .

"I'm _fine, _Sanji." Luffy said with a sigh, trying to make his friends realize that he _wasn't _hurt during the crash. "It was just a few bruises. Ace got it worse than me, he's still at home. His—erm—boss didn't want him coming to work today."

Beside him, Chopper, the youngest, yet smartest person in their grade, looked outraged. "He's home by himself while he's injured?!"

Luffy was about to say 'no' and that Hiken and Mugiwara were there with him, but then he realized that his nakama didn't know about Hiken and Mugiwara and he wasn't suppose to tell anyone about them. So instead, he just laughed and said, "Ace is strong! He can take care of himself for a few hours!"

"But what if he hurts himself and nobody's around?" Chopper waved his small arms everywhere, trying to get Luffy to understand the seriousness of this situation. "Ace might be in danger!"

"I doubt it," Luffy replied, still smiling, though he had to bite his tongue in order to stop something else from slipping through his mouth. "Ace'll be fine! He's probably too lazy to move, anyway." A lie, but Luffy couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Doctor-san," Robin said, closing her book and glancing up at the smaller child who was fuming at Luffy. "I don't think we can do anything about it. We'll just have to hope that nothing bad has happened."

"But Robinnnn . . !" Chopper looked at her with big, water eyes. "I just. . ."

Usopp threw his arm around his nakama with a big smile, laughing. "Cheer up, Chopper! Here, I brought some brownies that my mom made for us!" He waved the bag in Chopper's face and the tears were immediately gone.

"BROWINES?!"

And just like that, the situation was completely forgotten.

Luffy was fine, or so they all though.

Only two noticed the difference.

And they planned on finding out what was making their nakama act so strange.

* * *

Ace always knew his life was shit. They only thing that he had left was his little brother, even if he wanted to murder him sometimes, and the rest of his nakama. If it were up it him, he would've died a long time ago.

He fiddled with the white sticky note in his hands that read 'ONE PIECE . . . DOES EXIST!' in bold letters. The police had found it by the accident, but somehow it ended back up in Ace's apartment. He didn't know how, and he honestly couldn't care less.

The only thing he wanted to know was, what _was _'one piece'?

The adult had yet to ask Mugiwara or Hiken, even though he knew that they probably knew the answer. He just couldn't bring himself to ask them, especially since all of this shit happened.

But then again, his curiosity would always get the better of him.

With a huge sigh, Ace got up and slowly made his way towards the living room. He poked his head around the corner, thinking that he'd find his living room in shambles. Instead he found both Mugiwara and Hiken curled up on the couch, asleep.

Ace would have been lying if he didn't think it was cute, especially the way they seemed so protective of each other. He was about to turn around when he heard a sleepy voice call out, "Ace? What are you doing?"

Ace jumped in surprise, almost hitting his head on a self next to him, and turned around only to come face-to-face with Mugiwara.

The said boy yawed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He then blinked a few times, like he was trying to focus on something. Finally, his gaze settled on Ace and a small smile appeared on his face before he yawed again.

"Sorry," Ace said, lowering his voice so he didn't wake is counterpart. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine," Mugiwara said with a smile that resembled Luffy's smile in every way possible. "What where you doing?"

"I needed to ask you guys a question, actually." Ace confessed, moving over so he was sitting on the couch opposite on Mugiwara.

Mugiwara nodded, then struggled out of Hiken's protective grip so he could sit up. He gave another giant grin that seemed to light up the whole room before he said, "Go on."

Ace took a deep breath, not sure why this was so difficult to ask. Wasn't it just a question? Then Ace mentally slapped himself—What the hell was he? A coward? No! He could do this, and he would, or else he might never know. "What the hell is 'One Piece'?"

* * *

Black beard was fuming—Not he was more than fuming. He didn't even notice that he killed ten people in his rage and honestly he could care less. How dare they! The fat man gritted his teeth. How dare they!

Not only does Mugiwara no Luffy get away from his, but that ridiculous brother of his that he had tried so hard to kill, was brought back to life! And then he was sent to this ridiculous dimension that had the strangest machines! How did life get so screwed up?

The only reason he didn't blow up the whole town right then and there was the fact that he spotted _himself _sneaking in an alleyway.

And well . . . That's basically how he ended up sitting in this dump surrounded by a bunch of powerless idiot who had no clue what they were doing.

"Damn it," Blackbeard's counterpart continuously muttered. "They were supposed to die in that damn car crash! But noooooo. That shitty driver couldn't do shit!"

"This is your fault, you know," Blackbeard addressed his counterpart. "You honestly thought that a car crash was going to kill _them? _Those damn D brothers may be weak, but they have more damn lives than a admiral!"

Teach glared at him, but Blackbeard paid him no attention until Teach spoke in a dark voice, "You know nothing of my world, know your place."

In less that a second, Blackbeard was in the man's fat face glaring down long and hard. A black ball of swirling black sand was surrounding his left hand, while his right hand was gripping the helm of his counterpart's shirt. The guards gave a cry of alarm, but they knew that they couldn't do anything.

"Know my place?" Blackbeard spat. "You know _your _place. I could kill you in less that a second considering how weak you are. Your so-called 'comrades' are even worse. I am not afraid to kill you, even if you do look like me." The man's face twisted into an evil grin. "You are no more than an ant, cowering under the mighty ant eater."

Teach's eyes were wide, and all he managed was a weak 'okay'. Blackbeard's lip twitched in an even more sinister smile. Oh this was going well. If he could play his cards right then he might be able to finally get rid of those damn D's . . .

"Listen up!" Blackbeard's yell rung throughout the room. Everyone heard it, and they all looked fearfully at the man who could beat their leader like it was nothing. "From now on you will be following _my _every order. You will not question me, you will not disobey me. You will do everything I say and you will do it right! If you don't . . . Well then there will be punishments."

Everyone gulped, including Teach himself. If this was him in another world, he didn't want to imagine what that world was like. Just how bloodthirsty could a person be? Not even Teach was that heartless.

But the evidence was smirking up at him, fully aware of his fear. There was nothing he could do to hide it. He could conceal nothing from the monster in front of him. And he never would be able to.

"Now who's ready to kill a couple of D's?"

* * *

Hiken woke with a start, gasping for air, his hand over his chest. He didn't even realized that he'd startled both Ace and Mugiwara. He was too focused on the feel in the air.

He stared at his hands, unaware that Mugiwara and Ace were calling his name, unable to respond. Something just seemed so . . . _off. _Something was wrong. Something was changing.

Finally he looked up, meeting the eyes of Mugiwara's wide ones. They looked scared, worried. But why? Why was his little brother so worried? "Luffy?" He didn't even bother to use the nickname that Ace had come up with. He wanted to know. He wanted to know if his brother felt it too. "You feel it too, right?"

Ace looked at him lie he was slightly worried for his mental health, but Mugiwara stopped moving, his eyes widening before he took two steps back. "That air."

It wasn't a question. Now Hiken knew that something was defiantly wrong. "Something's changing."

"Something big happened," Mugiwara echoed, his eyes slightly glazed.

"Um . . . Guys . . ?" Ace looked like he didn't know what to do. "Oi. Oi! Snap out of it!"

He was ignored. "He's coming, isn't he?" Hiken asked, not even bothering to hide the fear in his eyes. This was the one man who beat him until he couldn't fight anymore; this was the man that killed his father, the one that tried to kill his brother.

"He is," Mugiwara said, his hand roaming to the scar on his chest. Blackbeard might not have given him the scar himself, but that scar was a representation of the whole war, Blackbeard included.

Suddenly Ace wasn't scared anymore. This man had taken him away from _his _nakama! He had tried to kill _his _brother! _He was the reason he died in the first place! _"I'll kill him," Hiken promised. "I'll kill him!"

"Oi!" Ace was looking frantically at both of the older teens. "What the hell are you talking about?! Stop it! It's creeping me out!"

"He needs to die," Mugiwara hissed in a very un-mugiwara like voice. Dark memories that he had tried to forget were now surfacing again. He hated that; he hated these. He wanted them gone! He wanted his nakama back, he wanted to go home with Hiken, he wanted it to be back the way it was before the war.

Yet something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't going to happen.

_"Thank you . . . For loving me!"_

Hiken had another place to return to.

* * *

**Finished yet another chapter! We're starting to head towards the middle of your beloved story, isn't that right? xD**

**Ah well. This chapter was intense. I tried to crack a few Luffy-like jokes, but it never really fit at the time D: And I have to say that I re-wrote the beginning of this at least seven times. Gosh, I had no clue what two write while they were in school xD**

**And at the end, Hikena and Mugiwara were using Haki, even if they don't realize it. **

**So how was it? I'm giving virtual cookies to anyone who can guess who the two that noticed Luffy's behavior issues are!**


	8. Prison Break

"Something's wrong with Luffy."

"Well duh. He was in a freaking car crash!" Usopp shouted, waving his arms around. "People just don't come out of that like it's nothing."

Nami sighed at the dilemma and ran her hair through her short orange hair. "Well, he is Luffy. He usually jumps right back up." She looked Zoro in the eyes. "But he didn't seem all that different."

They were all sitting in a small abandoned warehouse that sat in the quiet part of the neighborhood. Most of the time, the friends would gather here after school and stay here until midnight before they went home. Luffy would usually join them but he said he had 'brother issues' and just left. Not that anyone would get what he was trying to get at anyway, Luffy is Luffy. He's impossible to understand.

"Navigator-san," Robin said with mild curiously, calling her friend by the ridiculous nickname that Luffy had invented. "You didn't notice? I though it was quiet obvious."

"Noticed what?" Franky demanded. "I don't see what you're saying about Luffy-bro."

Franky didn't actually go to school with them—neither did Brook who was also with the group most of the time. They tended to say (Some were convinced that Franky lived in the warehouse) and only show up after everyone else. The two were way to old to go to school, so the teens didn't even bother asking.

"He was spaced out," Zoro tried to explain. "He wasn't saying that much stupid things and he didn't even finish his lunch."

_That _got the crew attention. "He didn't finish his lunch?" Sanji muttered darkly, taking a cigar from his pocked. "That shitty gomu." The nickname had come into place ever since everyone had discovered that Luffy could virtually bounce back from everything, completely unharmed. Like Rubber.

But there was no way he would have _really _been made of rubber. It was impossible.

"It's the end of the world."

"Luffy-san is anxious? Yohohohoho! Something must be bothering him!"

"I have the worse feeling about this." Chopper commented, not noticing everyone's eyes on him until he looked up.

"What is it, Chopper?" Nami asked. The 'crew' new full well that Chopper had amazing instincts, and they trusted him. If Chopper felt that something bad was going to happen, then something bad was going to happen. It wasn't like they could try and change it, but they at least wanted to know what they are up against.

"I-I don't know." Chopper muttered into his hands. "It just feels unnatural.  
Dark."

"Dark?"

"Yeah," Chopper looked at everyone in the eyes. "Something like a black hole that wants mass destruction. Something evil. Something we've never experienced before. And I think it's connected to Luffy."

* * *

"Zehehehe!" Blackbeard was honestly happy. He could even stand the mindless idiots and his bastard counterpart at the moment. He was going to get his crew back! Well, they weren't technically his, they were his counterparts, but that bastard doesn't deserve something as strong as them. Blackbeard might actually have someone who can do work around here if they pull off this simple raid.

Well, it was simple for Blackbeard.

It's supposed to be just a prison raid on the local prison that currently holds some of Blackbeard's crew. The others—Blackbeard has no clue (and frankly doesn't care) about their whereabouts. If they aren't here, then they aren't getting out. It wasn't like he needed them anyway to kill those two stupid D's.

"This is a bad idea." Teach said, looking up at the large prison in front of him. "Many of my underlings are either going to be killed or caught. Maybe us too."

"Nonsense!" Blackbeard practically shouted. "Well, you might be right, but I don't care about your life, or the lives of those idiots. They're all just pawns. Pawns die, and that's fine. All you need is power! More and more power! And the bastards in there are the ones that have the power and some of the brains that I need."

Teach was honestly thinking about beating this asshole to the ground, but that would only get him killed. He needed to find the right moment before he struck. And he would strike. No one gets away with humiliating Marshall D. Teach this badly, counterpart of not.

"Right," Teach said, sarcasm dripping off his voice. "Because you're going to be the Pirate King and a Pirate King needs his crew."

"No, no," Blackbeard waved him off, not even noticing the sarcasm. "A Pirate King doesn't need his crew—he needs strong idiots who can do what they're asked and not complain. Only people like Strawhat are stupid enough to think of their 'crewmates' as nakama. No one has time for such a ridiculous thing."

Teach was about to say something when a large explosion shook the ground. Even though Teach was standing a ways away from the prison, he could still feel the heat on his back and turned to get a better look at the damage.

Half the prison was completely destroyed—no doubt that the loss of life would be significant, yet somehow, the other side of the gray building was almost completely unharmed. There were a few scorch marks, but other than that it seemed fine.

The prison alarms were blazing; smoke was rising so high into the sky that it would be impossible for anyone not to see it. The prisoners that somehow made it out of the explosion were quickly fleeing from their cage, whooping and cheering.

"Did you _kill _them?" Teach asked, his words completely calm, not letting any of his emotions into his voice. "I thought you said you wanted them alive."

Blackbeard glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as if to say, '_are you stupid or something?' _ "The ones that I want will be fine. They're strong bastards and could make it through a puny explosion. As for the others," Blackbeard waved his hand around in a lazy way. "The ones who died died. Their lives don't matter; they were too weak anyway. As for the others, I'm sending some of my men—" Teach hated when he said 'my men' because they weren't his! They were Teach's men! Not this motherfucker who dared to go by his name. "To give them a choice. Join me, or die."

"What if the ones you want—" Who he still didn't know who or what they were— "Don't want to join you?"

"Blackbeard laughed, clutching his fat stomach as if he were actually greatly amused by the statement. "You sure are an idiot! Of _course _they'll join me! Who doesn't want to rule the world as my underling?"

_Me, _Teach though, but he didn't dare voice his opinions, knowing full well what he'd get for his struggles. The last time he'd gotten in an argument with this monster, he nearly died. Apparently the man had complete control over darkness, which didn't quell Teach's nerves.

Teach sort of felt bad for those D brothers if this is what they had to go through. Not only was this asshole ugly, fat and deadly, but also he was an egotistical bastard who didn't know when to shut up.

Don't get him wrong—He still hated the boys. He's tried to murder the boys several times, including the recent car accident. Though, that wasn't actually Teach who was driving the car. Blackbeard had laughed and told him that if anyone was going to murder those boys, it would be him then he hopped into the car and drove off. He came back not even a day later, not even injured (Though Teach hoped that he got at least some brain damage).

"Perfect," He could practically feel the Blackbeard's smirk radiate off of his hairy stomach. "They're coming. I can feel it." Blackbeard paused, almost as if he were thinking about what to do next. "Get ready, Ace. Luffy. I'm going to make you pay for everything. And this time, they're not going to be able to get back up again."

* * *

Luffy raced to get back to his house, eager to see what had happened while he was gone. He sprinted up the steps the lead to the front door and didn't even bother knocking before he threw open the door and yelled, "I'm home!"

The fist thing that he noticed was an aroma like Luffy had never smelled before. The young teen's mouth watered just at the though of sinking his teeth into whatever was cooking. He could only picture what was sizzling on that miracle machine called a stove.

"Welcome back!" Ace, at least he assumed it was Ace instead of Hiken, shouted back to him. Luffy grinned and dropped his backpack before racing into the kitchen where he could smell a beautiful aroma.

It was Ace that shouted to him—he had on an orange apron that said, 'burn everything' and a chef's hat that Luffy had gotten him for one of his birthdays a long time ago. He turned and grinned at the younger, before going back to what he was cooking.

Luffy peeked over the man's shoulder, watching him cook. A peaceful silence settled over the two only to be interrupted by Luffy's raging stomach. "I'm hungry," The boy complained simply, clutching his stomach like he hadn't eaten in weeks. "By the way—where's Mugiwara and Hiken?"

"Errm," Ace looked around the room as if he were trying to look for them in the small cramped space that they called their kitchen. A look of confusion crossed his face and the older frowned in thought. "I'm not sure. Mugiwara was in here just a few minutes ago but then he left. Maybe you should go search for them."

It was then they heard a crash coming from the living room. Both brothers looked at each other before taking off in the direction that the crash came from.

"GET OFF ME!" Hiken was screaming at the top of his lungs, jumping around the living room flaying his arms around like a mad man. Biting down on one of those arms was Mugiwara, and he didn't look like he was letting go any time soon.

Ace was standing there—probably looking like an idiot—not taking in what he was seeing. The only thought that was running through his mind was, 'What the hell? They were both asleep a few minutes ago!' He didn't snap out of it until Hiken jumped on a table next to one of the couches and knocked over his lamp, making it shatter on the floor.

"QUIT USING HAKI! IT ISN'T FAIR!" Hiken continued to yell, ignoring both Ace and Luffy's presence, focusing on his troublesome brother.

"yob twn inpoo fiwe ouberwiy!" Mugiwara yelled something, but his mouth was still firmly clamped onto Hiken's arm. By some miracle, Ace had been in similar situation and could now speak 'Luffy' as he liked to put it and the words translated into 'You'd turn into fire otherwise!'.

Gathering his senses, Ace screamed out, "STOP!" at the top of his lungs, making both Mugiwara and Hiken freeze in place and Luffy to flinch away from him, cradling his now injured ear.

"Owwwwwww!" Mugiwara companied, though Ace doubted the yell seriously injured him. "That hurt, Ace! It's not nice to yell in someone's ear!" Luffy nodded in agreement, looking up at Ace with his big, adorable eyes.

"It's not nice to bit people either," Hiken said, his voice holding much of the annoyance he felt, while he was pressing on his bleeding hand.

"It's not nice to keep secrets from each other," Mugiwara countered, completely forgetting Ace and Luffy and glared at Hiken. Ace had never seen these two like this—he assumed that they had a different brotherly relationship from the world which they came, but the more he watched them, the more he realized that they all had pretty much the same relationship.

"Well," Hiken looked like he was racking his brain for a comeback. "It's not nice to ask things that shouldn't be asked."

"I want to know what it is!" And just like that both boys were arguing with each other again, this time not as destructive. Ace's eyebrow twitched in impatient.

"LISTEN TO ME!" He screamed out again, successfully gaining both pirate's attention. Hiken looked at him with a slight frown on his face while Mugiwara's lips twitched in an effort to keep a smile down. "Good. Now can we please have a civilized conversation?"

"Pfft. No."

"Shut up, Hiken."

"What does cibibized or whatever you said mean?"

"I'm hungry."

"MEAT!"

Ace resisted the urge to slam all three of their head together. '_It's not worth it.' _He told himself over and over again. '_Even Hiken is acting like an idiot. Ah whatever, don't get so worked up. That's it. Deep breath.' _Ace might been worried that he was talking to himself but at the moment he was too transfixed on the task that lay ahead

"Alright, Mugiwara. Hiken. Why were you guys about to destroy my living room?"

Hiken immediately pointed in Mugiwara's direction and said in a childish voice, "It's his fault! He's too innocent!" Ace doubted that, but didn't comment. Instead he turned towards Mugiwara who supported a Luffy-pout on his face.

"Hiken won't tell me what sex is!"

Dead. Silence.

Until Luffy started laughing like this was the funniest thing in the world. Ace just stared at the teen in disbelief. Did he seriously not know . . .?

As if reading his counterpart's face, Hiken nodded somberly. "He's being completely serious."

Ace's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding right?"

A small laugh. "Nope. Sex isn't a big thing in our world."

Ace covered his face to keep the blush from showing. "Oh Oda this is so messed up."

"Will one of you just tell me what it is?!" Mugiwara was glaring at all of them, his arms crossed and his face contorted into something akin of annoyance. Ace could understand his feelings, but for someone his age not to know what sex is just isn't possible. Even Luffy, his sweet, innocent (not really) little Luffy had know what sex is for a while now, pretty much since the end of elementary school.

"How old are you?" Ace asked instead, hoping to stall the teen for a while so he didn't have to answer the question. He knew it wouldn't work for that long—He'd probably just end up getting bite by the brat like Hiken but there was always a chance that he could wiggle his way out of this sticky situation. He reminded himself that dinner was almost done and he just had to stall him for a few more minutes . . .. He could do it!

"19. Now tell me." All right. He was getting straight to the point. This was bad. Mugiwara seemed to be more focused than his Luffy was. Ace didn't know if this was a good thing or bad thing, but at the moment it was an awful thing that only the devil he could've created.

Unfortunately for Ace and Hiken, Luffy just laughed his ass off until he couldn't breath and seemed to have no problem with the question. "You don't know what sex is? How funny! Everyone knows what sex is silly! There was this one time that Ace saw this cute guy—"

Ace was tacking his brother to the ground before more nonsense could spill out of that stupid, shameless mouth of his. Ace was pretty sure that his face was a bright red, but he couldn't do anything about that at the moment.

The brother's struggling match soon turned into a play fight and then it escalated in a full-blown sparring match. Ace won by the end of course, but Luffy still tried to get out of his death grip, squirming and giggling all the way.

When Ace finally remembered that he had guests watching them, he picked himself up and his face flushed in embarrassment. Hiken looked relived—he probably was glad that the earlier topic was out the window—while Mugiwara was smiling just as brightly as always, and laughing and giggling like Luffy.

For once, Ace was_ almost_ glad that they were pretty much the same people. That way they understand you more than other would.

"Ne, you guys still haven't told me what sex is."

_Almost. _

"I forgot to say this, but nice apron."

Then there were other times where he wanted to strangle both of them.

* * *

**The interaction with Ace/luffy/hiken and mugiwara was just a little tension breaker x3**

**Poor Mugiwara. Even Luffy knows what sex is. **

**OMG. I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING IN TEACH'S POV.**

**I don't know why, but I'm starting to like Teach a little bit xD He has almost a completely different personality from Blackbeard and that's because he didn't grow up like Blackbeard—He might've killed people before, but he didn't just go and blow up prisons like Blackbeard does. Not to mention that I was gigging to myself because I could make Teach insult Blackbeard all I wanted! Ahhhhhh that felt good to insult him.**

**Also, someone asked me about AceLu paring; No matter how much I want to make this an AceLu fic, I'm not because I told everyone in the first chapter that this wouldn't have any parings. I will be making an AceLu fic in the near future though! So don't worry all of you AceLu fans! /AceLu is my OTP along with Percabeth from the Percy Jackson series. HOUSE OF HADES COMES OUT SOON WHOOP WHOOP.**

**I also have this little thing that I'm probably not going to include in this story, but I wanted to share it anyway . . . **

"It's your fault that your brothers died, Mugiwara." Blackbeard hissed with that sick grin that seemed to bring darkness to the room. "Sabo wouldn't have died if you weren't there! He'd be sailing with his brother, who would also be alive if you hadn't invaded that war. Have you ever though about that? _It's all your fault."_

Mugiwara trembled as the weight of the words hit him on full force. "How . . . ? How do you know about Sabo?!"

Blackbeard chuckled humorlessly. "I know everything about you."

Behind Mugiwara, Luffy suddenly shouted out, "Stalker!" And ran to hide behind Ace.


	9. The Promise

**I'm back minna! Hope you like this chapter, even if it is a little short. ~**

* * *

_"Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho _

_Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho."_

Hiken stretched his legs out on the soft grass, looking up at the dark, star-less sky. Ace had told him that it was because of the pollution in the air that they couldn't see the stars. It made Hiken sad to hear that; he always liked the stars. They reminded him of the time he, Luffy and Sabo were still together.

Hiken sighed, rolling over on his side. He missed Sabo so much. Hell, he missed _Luffy _so much that it made his chest want to burst. Every time he looked at his younger brother he couldn't help but mentally count everything that had changed from when they were kids. When had it started to go downhill? A long time ago, that's for sure. Sabo's death might've strengthened their brotherhood, but pirating had weathered it down as much as Hiken hated to admit it.

The scar was a constant reminder to Hiken that things would never go back to the way they were. Both him and Luffy bore the same scars from the same man that ripped apart everything they had worked so hard to build up. How could someone be so heartless? How could someone do that with no guilt?

It baffled Hiken to no end. Mugiwara was _helpless. _He couldn't _move a damn muscle! _Yet, the fist had gone towards him. The fist had meant to kill _him. _The very boy that had flipped Hiken's world upside down so many time. Why _him? _Mugiwara was an angel with hidden wings; he was a devil with horns and a tail clearly showing.

And now a scar to prove it.

_ "Going to deliver Bink's sake _

_Following the sea breeze _

_Riding on the waves _

_Far across the salty depths _

_The merry evening sun _

_Painting circles in the sky _

_As the birds sing_."

"Aww. No stars?" A blur of red and pale plopped itself in Hiken's lap, seemingly unaware of the tense atmosphere that Hiken was emitting. Mugiwara's eye looked up at him filled with so much curiosity and humor, yet Hiken saw the hidden emotions that swirled inside of those brown orbs. Sadness, longing, and was that . . . Understanding?

Hiken sighed, pulling his brother in for a hug. The fire-user was going to let both worlds know that _no one _messed with his baby brother anymore. The teen had already gone through so much shit and he was barley even twenty.

_"Farewell to the harbor _

_To my old hometown _

_Lets all sing out with a Don _

_As the ship sets sail _

_Waves of gold and silver _

_Dissolve to salty spray _

_As we all set sail to _

_The ends of the sea"_

A somber atmosphere seemed to evoke the two brothers as the continued to stare up at the star-less sky, thinking similar things. Finally Mugiwara sighed, turning around to bury his face into Hiken's muscular chest. "You promised."

Hiken knew where this was heading. He's had nightmares about it. He felt his heart wrench as the familiar guilt overtook his movements. He started to stroke Mugiwara's hair almost as if he were a small kitten that had just lost its mother. "I know." But did he? Did he really know? Everything was an empty void of blackness.

_"Listen, Luffy! I WILL NEVER DIE!" _

"Then why did you break it?" His brother's voice cracked at the end, not looking up at Hiken.

Hiken stared at the empty sky, still stroking Mugiwara's soft black hair. Had he broke such an important promise? He didn't remember much about that day. He knew that he'd died, that was obvious. He also knew that he left Mugiwara alone for two _damn years. _Just the thing that he promised Sabo that he wouldn't do. Had he broke Sabo's promise too? But he didn't leave Mugiwara alone! He was always there, always watching. "Who says I did?"

His brother looked up at him with a look that clearly said, 'are you stupid?'. "Me. I say."

"I didn't break my promise, Luffy." Nicknames be damned. This was _his _brother, not Ace's—the other one—and he was going to call him as such. There were no disturbances, not otherworldly force that kept trying to screw with them. Hiken would make sure of that.

_"Going to deliver Bink's sake _

_We are pirates _

_Sailing through the sea _

_The waves are our pillows _

_The ship, our roost _

_Flying the proud skull _

_On our flags and our sails."_

With eyes full of disbelief, Mugiwara set his eyes downcast, refusing to look up at his older brother. "You said you wouldn't die. You promised that you wouldn't leave me alone."

"Did I die?" Hiken whispered, turning his eyes back to the sky and hugging his brother closer. "What is dying anyway? Is it getting pierced through the heart? Shot with a pistol?" The fire-user glanced at the boy that seemed so, _so _small and so, _so _fragile in his arms. "I always thought of dying as being forgotten. That's why I don't fear 'death' because death isn't the same for me compared to a normal person. It's forgetting someone that causes the most damage, more than lava could ever make. Did you forget me?"

"No!" Came the immediate reply. "I-I never forgot!" Mugiwara started to curl in on himself like that sever-year old who didn't have a family back so long ago. "I couldn't forget. Whenever I closed my eyes I always say your face. Hear your last words. It was mocking me."

_"Now comes a storm _

_Through the far-off sky _

_Now the waves are dancing _

_Beat upon the drums _

_If you lose your nerve _

_This breath could be your last _

_But if you just hold on _

_The morning sun will rise."_

"My face was mocking you?" Hiken couldn't help but ask with a raised eyebrow and a dangerous smirk on his face. He was still sad, yes, seeing his little brother like this was enough to drive him over the edge.

Mugiwara punched him lightly in the chest, right in the center of his scar. The pirate had a small smile on his face and just like that Hiken knew things were going to be okay. For now at least. "Shut up. That's not what I meant."

"Oh?" Hiken couldn't help but tease, breaking the somber mood. "Is my little bro being smart?"

_"Going to deliver Bink's sake _

_Today and tomorrow _

_Our dreams through the night _

_Waving our goodbyes _

_We'll never meet again _

_But don't look so down _

_For at night the moon will rise."_

Mugiwara buried his face into Hiken's chest once again. "Silly Ace." Still no nicknames. "But were you really always there? You're not going to leave me alone?"

"Never," Hiken said with sincerity, ruffling the black bangs. "I will never leave you alone again."

"Promise?"

Hiken was hesitant at first, knowing his track record of promises. But then he though about what he said before and smiled. "It's a promise."

Immediately Hiken felt awful, like he had already broke the promise once again. He wasn't promising what Mugiwara thought he was promising. He wasn't promising that he wouldn't die again—that was a stupid promise from the start. He was already dead, yet he wasn't. Hiken didn't even know what he'd do if he went back to his own world. The future was a mystery.

But then again, when had it not been?

Hiken already knew that he had another place to return to and it wasn't home.

Hiken knew this for a fact.

_"Going to deliver Bink's sake _

_Let's all sing it with a Don _

_A song of the waves _

_Doesn't matter who you are _

_Someday you'll just be bones _

_Never-ending, ever wandering _

_Our funny traveling tale."_

* * *

Hiken was ready to burn Ace's balls off, literally. He was still kind of pissed off at the fact that Ace _hadn't _died yet (No, he wasn't ever going to admit this) but now the jerk had the nerve to have his hat?!

Okay. Okay. Calm down. It wasn't exactly _his _hat; his hat had probably been destroyed when he got his ass handed to him by Teach (He'll kill the bastard later) and the hat that Ace was wearing was _black _and not orange, but otherwise it was still his hat! He _liked _that hat, dammit!

Ace, of course, was oblivious to the dark looks that he was receiving while he cooked for _four _bottomless pits and then two other normal eaters. Ace had to wonder for a second why Thatch wasn't the one cooking, but then realized that the man wasn't even _up _yet.

Possibly sensing Hiken's question, Ace turned around and quickly explained, "Thatch and Marco had to work late last night building the ships for Oyaji since he was running low on members. I think they got back around 3 this morning so they're both in pissy moods."

"Oyaji builds ships?" Hiken asked, sill eyeing the black hat that was placed on Ace's head. _Damn, _he really wanted his hat back.

"Only the best ones in the world," Ace puffed out his chest proudly, smirking as if he had a found memory. "He's an amazing boss, really. He calls all of us—"

"Sons. Yeah, I know."

"What are so pissed about anyway?" Ace turned back to his cooking. "I mean that you've been glaring at my back for the past 10 minutes. Did I do something wrong?"

"Nah," Mugiwara appeared in the doorway, lazily sliding into the chair next to Hiken. The half-closed eyes still told the young adult that the boy had just got out of bed and was tired. "He's just pissed that you have a hat that looks like his old one that he lost."

Cursing himself for letting Mugiwara read him so well, he slammed his elbow in the rubber-brain's face ignoring the yelp of surprise and the amused smirk that Ace wore. "So, why aren't you at work if Oyaji needed men?" Ace attempted to change the subject, kicking Luffy under the table when he laughed (At least it actually hurt the teen, and Hiken didn't even have to use Haki!).

"I told him that Luffy was giving me problems so he let me work at home." Ace replied easily, slipping a few pancakes onto the plates on the table. "I just have a shitload of paperwork to do."

"Fun," Hiken said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," Ace agreed before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. Even from where Ace sat, he could still hear the shout of, "MARCO! THATCH GET YOUR ASSES DOWNSTAIRS OR LUFFY IS GOING TO EAT YOUR BREAKFAST!"

"Luffy already left!" Hiken called back to Ace, noticing the empty seat and plate where Luffy was previously sitting. "He took the rest of the pancakes too!"

A whole lot of curing followed, mostly from Ace, but he could hear Thatch shouting some profanities too.

Grinning to himself, Hiken couldn't wait to get this day started already.

* * *

**I got to write some Acelu -dances around happily-**

**Okayokay. You guys aren't going to expect what's going to happen in the next few chapters! :D Fell free to guess and if you get it right, I'll tell you. I've been hinting at it but I doubt any of you actually got it x3** **Also, like three or four plot twists just appeared in my mind ****_today _****so I'm straying from the original plot and making this thing longer. Yay~**

_**REALLY IMPORTANT~**_

_**THE NEXT CHAPTER WON'T BE AN UPDATE! IT'LL BE A BONUS STORY FEATURING ACE, LUFFY, MARCO AND TATCH'S PAST AND HOW ACE AND LUFFY KNOW WHITEBEARD**_

**bonus story**


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